Recovery from sufentanil anaesthesia for outpatient arthroscopy: a comparison with isoflurane

This study compares the recovery from sufentanil and isoflurane anaesthesia in patients undergoing outpatient arthroscopy of the knee under general anaesthesia. In 40 unpremedicated patients, divided at random into two groups, anaesthesia was induced with methohexitone and vecuronium bromide and, after intubation, maintained with nitrous oxide 66% in oxygen supplemented with sufentanil or isoflurane. Patients in Group A received sufentanil (1 microgram/kg) at induction and if necessary an incremental dose of 10 micrograms. Patients in Group B received 3% isoflurane prior to intubation and 0.9% during maintenance. Awakening from anaesthesia was more rapid with sufentanil than isoflurane. Recovery was assessed from the time patients took to open their eyes, to give correct answers to five questions and to recover from ocular imbalance. (Maddox wing test), and by comparing pre- and postoperative performance of a paper and pencil test (the p-deletion test). After 2 h, there was no difference between the two groups. Both anaesthetic techniques provided satisfactory operating conditions, but the sufentanil group showed a higher incidence of nausea and vomiting (45%) than the isoflurane group (15%).