Why the study?
Does halothane anaesthesia cause greater haemodynamic depression in neonates and young infants compared to older children?
Does halothane anaesthesia cause greater haemodynamic depression in neonates and young infants compared to older children?
Neonates and young infants are significantly more susceptible to haemodynamic depression from halothane anaesthesia than older children, confirming clinical experience.
May warrant closer BP monitoring in neonates and young infants under halothane; leaves open generalizability to modern agents and causal inference.
The hypothesis that young infants are more sensitive to the haemodynamic depressant effects of halothane compared with older children was tested. One hundred and sixty unpremedicated, ASA physical status I or II paediatric patients without cardiac or pulmonary disease were divided into five age groups: term neonates, 1-6 months, 6-24 months, 2-6 years and 6-12 years. Anaesthetic induction was achieved with halothane in oxygen and air via mask. Vecuronium 0.1 mg.kg-1 was administered intravenously. During normocapnic manual ventilation by mask, endtidal halothane concentration was maintained at either 2xage-specific MAC (Method I) or 1.7% (Method II) in 20 patients in each age group for 10 min. In both Method I and Method II, systolic and mean blood pressure of term neonates and infants aged 1-6 months decreased significantly (P < 0.01) compared with other age groups. The results of this study demonstrate that neonates and young infants are more susceptible to haemodynamic depression during halothane anaesthesia than are older children, confirming clinical experience.
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Friesen et al. (2000) studied this question.
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