Effects of enflurane (Ethrane) anesthesia on children during short surgical procedures

Enflurane, a new inhalation anesthetic agent, was administered as primary anesthetic agent to children undergoing elective surgery of +/- 20 minutes duration in Oto-Rhino-Laryngology. Induction was done by enflurane (0.2 - 3.5%) given in a mixture of 50% N2O/O2 and maintenance was done with 2% enflurane and N2O/O2 mixture. Induction and recovery were rapid and uneventful. Regarding the cardiovascular system, we observed, during the first ten minutes of anesthesia, a significant drop of blood pressure which almost always returned to normal when the surgical stimulus was applied. Respiratory depression was negligiable in the spontaneously breathing patients. No ECG changes were observed. Postanesthetic side effects were minimal. Keeping in view the reports of other authors and our own results, we conclude that enflurane is a safe and well suited anesthetic in pediatric anesthesia of relatively short duration with spontaneous respiration.