[Combined general anesthesia using moradol in children]

The purpose of this study was to assess the efficacy of moradol (butorphanol tartrate) as an analgetic component of combined total anesthesia in children. The adequacy of anesthesia was assessed by echography, electrocardiography, and electroencephalography, measurements of stress hormones, electrolyte balance, and metabolic parameters at various stages of anesthesia and surgery. A total of 103 patients aged 1 to 4 years were examined, subjected to abdominal, thoracal, urological, orthopaedic, and ENT surgery. The stability of the basic hemodynamic parameters and some stress hormones in the blood during surgery indicated effective protection of the organism from surgical trauma, on the one hand, and evidenced the minimal effect of anesthesia on the adrenal and thyroid function, on the other. A single injection of moradol during induction narcosis was sufficient for 2.5 to 3 hours of surgery. No serious side effects of the drug were observed. Prolonged (10 hours on average) anesthesia persisted after the operation, this decreasing the postoperative use of analgesics.