EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF ANAESTHESIOLOGY

Background and objective The aim of this study was to compare the effects of sevoflurane vs. sevoflurane and remifentanil on cough and agitation during emergence and recovery after fiberoptic bronchoscopy. Methods Children between 2 and 6 years of age undergoing fiberoptic bronchoscopy were enrolled. All patients were premedicated with oral midazolam. Patients were randomly assigned to either group S (sevoflurane alone, n=25) or group SR (sevoflurane with remifetanil, n=25). Anaesthesia was induced and maintained with sevoflurane in all patients. Group SR received remifentanil at a bolus dose of 1 mu g/kg over 2 min followed by a maintenance infusion of 0.15 mu g/kg/min. In addition to routine anaesthesia documentation, agitation scores and cough scores were recorded every 5 min during emergence and recovery. Results Duration of the procedure, anaesthesia and emergence phases was similar in both groups (P>0.05). Time until recovery was significantly shorter in group SR than in group S (7.0 +/- 5.5 min and 13.0 +/- 3.5 min, respectively; P = 0.001). Cough scores were not significantly different between the two groups during emergence and recovery (Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA test, P>0.05). However, the mean agitation score at 5 min in group SR was significantly higher than that in group S (Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA test, P