• Kiyotaka Sato, Hideyuki Kamii, and Masato Kato.
• Department of Neuroanesthesia, Kohnan Hospital, Sendai.
• Masui. 2008 Jun 1; 57 (6): 704-7.

BackgroundEarly detection of complications after craniotomies are important and remifentanil may be beneficial for that purpose because of the short and constant context-sensitive half time. To examine the efficacy of remifentanil in neuroanesthesia, we investigated hemodynamic properities and recovery from anesthsia in craniotomies.MethodsFifty patients undergoing scheduled neurosurgical procedures were included. Anesthesia was induced and maintained with propofol, vecuronium and fentanyl (group C, 25 cases) or remifentanil (group R, 25 cases).ResultsThere were no diffirences between the groups in age, sex distribution, procedure, duration of anesthesia, and amount of bleeding. Total dose of propofol was lower in group R (3.4+/-1.0 mg x kg(-1) x hr(-1)) than group C (4.9+/-0.8) (P<0.001). Incidence of hemodynamic changes at tracheal intubation was higher in group C (P<0.01) and bradycardia (HR<45) was more frequent in group R (P<0.001). Recovery time was shorter in group R (12.7+/-4.7 min) than that in group C (20.7+/-7.3) (P<0.001).ConclusionsRemifentanil is suitable for neuroanesthesia because of the hemodynamic stability and quick recovery from anesthesia.

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