[Clinical study on total intravenous anesthesia with droperidol, fentanyl, and ketamine--6. Effects on postoperative...

We have developed a new method of total intravenous anesthesia with droperidol, fentanyl, and ketamine, and have administered it to more than 700 surgical patients. We studied whether this method of anesthesia would influence postoperative liver function or not. A total of sixty elective surgical patients were the subjects of this study. Thirty patients underwent total hysterectomy under either the total intravenous anesthesia (15 patients) or modified neurolept-anesthesia with pentazocine (15 patients). The remaining 30 patients underwent gastrectomy under either this total intravenous anesthesia (15 patients) or enflurane-N2O anesthesia (15 patients). The hepatic function was evaluated as judged by s-GOT, s-GPT, ALP, gamma-GPT and total bilirubin levels, before anesthesia and during the first to third postoperative day. The patients for gastrectomy under enflurane-N2O anesthesia had significantly increased postoperative gamma-GPT levels compared with the patients of total intravenous anesthesia. Any other variables showed no significant difference among groups. We consider that this method of total intravenous anesthesia has no adverse effects on postoperative liver function as compared with other usual anesthetic methods.