[Peroperative evaluation of nalbuphine in pediatric thoracic and abdominal surgery]

Nalbuphin is a new agonist-antagonist opioid, with a noteworthy ceiling-effect in terms of analgesia and respiratory depression, a proper cardiocirculatory innocuousness, so that it seems to be a safe analgesic in children. Our study reports 40 thoracic or abdominal surgical procedures, with nalbuphine 0.22 +/- 0.04 mg.kg-1 as sole analgesic. To ensure maintenance of anaesthesia, a volatile anaesthetic agent is inhaled at 1.1 +/- 0.4 MAC concentration, and vecuronium 0.08 +/- 0.05 mg.kg-1 is administered at induction. There was no evidence of haemodynamic changes, and no change in CO2 production. There was no analgesia related adverse effect, and awakening occurred promptly. This report suggests that nalbuphin is a suitable analgesic for paediatric surgery.