Incidence of nausea and vomiting in children after strabismus surgery following desflurane anaesthesia.

In a prospective, randomized parallel study, 60 ASA I-III children aged 1-17 years, scheduled for elective strabismus surgery, were anaesthetized with desflurane without prophylactic antiemetic medication. The objective of the study was to determine the incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting after general anaesthesia with desflurane. To decide whether nitrous oxide further influences these symptoms, the patients were randomly assigned to two groups of 30 patients each. One group received desflurane in oxygen/air and a second group received desflurane in oxygen/nitrous oxide. In all children, after intravenous induction and tracheal intubation, anaesthesia was administered as minimal flow anaesthesia with oxygen and nitrous oxide or air according to the random plan. The patients were observed for 48 postoperative hours until their discharge from the ward. The overall incidence of nausea was found to be 37%, and vomiting was seen in 32% of all patients. No statistical correlation was found between the incidence of postoperative emesis and the administration of nitrous oxide or the duration of general anaesthesia. Instead, the incidence of vomiting was 2.5-fold higher when surgery was performed on both eyes compared with one eye. The relatively low incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting, as well as the quick recovery from anaesthesia, permitting an early discharge from the postoperative care unit to the ward, show desflurane to be a suitable volatile anaesthetic in strabismus surgery in children.