A maze test as a measure of recovery from anesthesia

This study investigated whether a paper and pencil maze test measuring the path length traced in 1 minute is a useful test of postoperative recovery from anesthesia. Fifty volunteer nonsurgical subjects were tested with four similar mazes to detect any improvement of scores with practice and learning. This improvement was found to occur in 46% of subjects and could be compensated for by a single practice attempt before taking the baseline score. The maze test was then evaluated in a double-blind randomized study of adult day surgery patients using two different anesthetics. There was a correlation between postoperative maze scores and a patient-assessed visual analogue sedation scale, and both the maze test and the sedation scale showed a significant difference between the two different anesthetic techniques 30 minutes after anesthesia. The postoperative maze scores were found to be normally distributed. Postoperative maze scores usually returned to preoperative baseline values before patients assessed themselves fully recovered from anesthesia. It is concluded that the maze test can be used as a reliable and valid test of early postoperative recovery but it is not useful for assessing late recovery or street fitness.