In horses undergoing volatile anaesthesia, is recovery quality superior with sevoflurane compared to isoflurane?

In horses undergoing volatile anaesthesia, is recovery quality superior with the use of sevoflurane compared to isoflurane during the maintenance phase?

Treatment.

Seven papers were available for critical appraisal. Of the seven papers, six were prospective, randomised trials and four of these were of crossover design. Of the same seven papers, three were experimental and four were clinical.

Moderate.

Five out of seven critically appraised articles found that there was no clinically significant improvement in recovery quality following volatile anaesthesia with sevoflurane compared to isoflurane. Two of the seven articles did find improvement in recovery quality following the use of sevoflurane over isoflurane, but both studies were of crossover design, one of these studies used non-blinded evaluators and the second study used both unblinded and blinded evaluators and a recovery quality scoring scale that did not show interobserver reliability.

In healthy horses presented for elective surgical and diagnostic imaging procedures in a clinical setting, there is no significant difference in recovery quality following the use of sevoflurane or isoflurane for the maintenance phase.