[Modern inhalational anesthesia in pediatric maxillofacial surgery]

The paper deals with the use of sevoflurane and isoflurane in elective pediatric maxillofacial surgery. Having outlined the major features of anesthesia in this category of patients, the authors emphasize the application of the conception of the minimum alveolar concentration (MAC) and its derivatives (MAC bar and MAC awake) reflecting the analgesic and hypnotic power of an inhalational anesthetic, respectively, and theoretically substantiate the use of certain anesthetic concentrations at particular stages of surgery. The technique described in the paper was used in 82 patients aged 1.5 months to 18 years, undergoing cleft lip and cleft palate repair, residual lip and nose deformation repair, and other elective maxillofacial procedures. The interventions lasted 40 minutes to 8 hours. Sevoflurane was commonly used as an induction agent while isoflurane was applied to maintain anesthesia. The anesthetics were administered at 1 to 1.3 and 0.8 MAC at traumatic and low traumatic stages of surgery, respectively. During the first traumatic period, the dose of fentanyl was not greater than 1.5 and 2.5 microg/kg in old and young children, respectively. Hemodynamics was characterized by moderate controlled hypotension with an average decrease in mean blood pressure by 30% of the age-related value. Emergence occurred 5-15 min after an anesthetic was discontinued. By and large, the technique demonstrated its efficiency and safety in this group of patients.