Propofol Versus Sevoflurane General Anaesthesia for Selective Impairment of Attention Networks After Gynaecological Surgery in Middle-Aged Women: A Randomised Controlled Trial

Chen Chen; Yuxue Wang; Jin Rao; Weixiang Tang; Weiwei Wu; Yuanhai Li; Guanghong Xu; Weiwei Zhong

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2022.917766

Propofol Versus Sevoflurane General Anaesthesia for Selective Impairment of Attention Networks After Gynaecological Surgery in Middle-Aged Women: A Randomised Controlled Trial

Front Psychiatry. 2022 Jul 14:13:917766. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.917766. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Chen Chen¹, Yuxue Wang¹, Jin Rao¹, Weixiang Tang¹, Weiwei Wu², Yuanhai Li¹, Guanghong Xu¹, Weiwei Zhong¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Anaesthesiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.
² Department of Anaesthesiology, Fourth Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.

Abstract

Purpose: Attention is an essential component of cognitive function that may be impaired after surgery with anaesthesia. Propofol intravenous anaesthesia and sevoflurane inhalational anaesthesia are frequently used in gynaecological surgery. However, which type of anaesthetic has fewer cognitive effects postoperatively remains unclear. We compared the differences in attention network impairment after surgery in women receiving propofol versus sevoflurane general anaesthesia.

Patients and methods: Eighty-three patients with gynaecological diseases who were 40-60 years of age were involved in the study. All patients underwent elective gynaecological surgery under either total intravenous anaesthesia or sevoflurane inhalational anaesthesia, depending on randomisation. The efficiencies of the three attention networks were captured using the attention network test preoperatively and on the 1st and 5th postoperative days.

Results: Both groups of patients showed differences in impairments on the 1st and 5th postoperative days. Pairwise comparisons indicated that the alerting and orienting networks of patients in the propofol group were impaired to a greater extent than those of patients in the sevoflurane group on the 1st postoperative day, while the executive control network was impaired to a lesser extent. On the 5th postoperative day, the alerting networks of both groups recovered to the baseline level. Patients in the propofol group still showed impairment of the orienting network, while patients in the sevoflurane group recovered to baseline. For the executive control network, patients in the sevoflurane group still exhibited more severe impairment than those in the propofol group.

Conclusion: In middle-aged women, propofol impaired orienting and alerting networks more than sevoflurane, while sevoflurane showed more residual impairment of the executive control network.

Keywords: attention network; postoperative cognitive dysfunction; postoperative neurocognitive disorder; propofol; sevoflurane.