Purpose: Anesthesia and surgery commonly cause hypothermia, and this caused by a combination of anesthetic-induced impairment of thermoregulatory control, a cold operation room environment and other factors that promote heat loss. All the general anesthetics markedly impair normal autonomic thermoregulatory control. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of two different types of propofol versus inhalation anesthetic on the body temperature.
Materials and methods: In this randomized controlled study, 36 patients scheduled for elective laparoscopic gastrectomy were allocated into three groups; group S (sevoflurane, n=12), group L (lipid-emulsion propofol, n=12) and group M (micro-emulsion propofol, n=12). Anesthesia was maintained with typical doses of the study drugs and all the groups received continuous remifentanil infusion. The body temperature was continuously monitored after the induction of general anesthesia until the end of surgery.
Results: The body temperature was decreased in all the groups. The temperature gradient of each group (group S, group L and group M) at 180 minutes from induction of anesthesia was 2.5 ± 0.6°C, 1.6 ± 0.5°C and 2.3 ± 0.6°C, respectively. The body temperature of group L was significantly higher than that of group S and group M at 30 minutes and 75 minute after induction of anesthesia, respectively. There were no temperature differences between group S and group M.
Conclusion: The body temperature is maintained at a higher level in elderly patients anesthetized with lipid-emulsion propofol.