Canadian Journal of Anesthesia, Vol 14, 567-583, Copyright © 1967 by Canadian Anesthesiologists' Society

Evaluation of Recovery and "Street Fitness" by E.E.G. and Psychodiagnostic Tests after Anaesthesia

After barbiturates or ether anaesthesia, drowsiness lasting 12 hours was observed but was not recorded with Epontol and halothane. Psychodiagnostic tests and E.E.G. records showed reduced fitness for as long as eight hours after barbiturates and ether anaesthesia. With Epontol such symptoms did not last longer than half an hour.

Epontol appears to be the only truly short-acting anaesthetic at present. Taking into account the stress associated with minor surgery, in our opinion, it takes two hours after Epontol anaesthetic for the patient to regain street fitness, unless there are other reasons for a longer delay. As a result of our knowledge of Epontol we have induced all our out-patient anaesthetics with this drug for the last year. We combined halothane with Epontol in about 8,000 cases without any complications and consider this the method of choice over the formerly employed barbiturate-halothane combination. We believe this to be also true for in-patients.

Note:
Presented at a panel discussion of anaesthesia for out patients during the Second European Congress of Anaesthesiology, Copenhagen, August, 1966. This work has been supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.