General anesthetic agents can change the shivering threshold. Sevoflurane and desflurane are widely used as inhalational anesthetics and have also been reported to lower the shivering threshold in a dose-dependent manner. Although the comparison of postoperative shivering (POS) between total intravenous anesthesia and inhalational anesthesia has been reported, there have been no reports on a direct comparison between sevoflurane and desflurane anesthesia and the occurrence of POS in open abdominal surgery. After obtaining approval from the Ethics Review Committee (2020-261), 683 adult patients who underwent open radical surgery for uterine, cervical, or pancreatic cancer under general anesthesia using inhalational anesthetics at Kyushu University hospital between December 2012 and March 2020 were included in this retrospective study. The odds ratio (OR) for the occurrence of POS between the two groups (sevoflurane and desflurane) was calculated. Multivariable-adjusted analysis was performed using possible factors affecting POS. Furthermore, propensity score (PS) matching was conducted using these factors. The multivariable-adjusted OR for the occurrence of shivering in the desflurane group (62 occurrences/356 patients) was 1.06 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.69-1.62, p = 0.79) compared with the sevoflurane group (77/327, reference). Similarly, after PS matching, the crude OR for the occurrence of shivering in the desflurane group (47/210) was 1.09 (95% CI: 0.68-1.75, p = 0.72) compared with the sevoflurane group (44/210, reference). Similar results were obtained in the stratified analysis by sex and age. The occurrence of POS is not different between sevoflurane and desflurane anesthesia.
Keywords: desflurane; sevoflurane; shivering.