TITLE:
Remifentanil Has Sufficient Hypnotic and Amnesic Effect for Induction of Anesthesia by Itself
AUTHORS:
Takeshi Yokoyama, Eiji Sakamoto, Fumiyasu Yamasaki, Koichi Yamashita, Tomoaki Yatabe, Kunio Suwa
KEYWORDS:
Remifentanil; Hypnotic potential; Stimulation; Amnesia
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Anesthesiology,
Vol.4 No.1,
January
16,
2014
ABSTRACT: With a small-dose remifentanil, some patients showed no reaction and did
not remember it postoperatively. We, therefore, hypothesized that remifentanil may decrease the level of consciousness and/or exhibit
amnesic effect when stimulations are avoided. Thirty-patients were divided into
two groups: non-stimulation group and stimulation group. Anesthesia was induced with 1 micro-g·kg?1·min?1 of remifentanil using no additional hypnotic agent. In the non-stimulation
group, patients were left free from any stimulation except non-invasive blood
pressure monitoring. In the stimulation group, patients were asked to follow
verbal commands. The level of consciousness was
evaluated with electroencephalogram and BIS-value derived from it. In the
non-stimulation group, all patients reached the decreased level of
consciousness in 5 minutes. In the stimulation group,
however, 14 patients were judged to be still conscious. 10 patients could open
their mouth at the 5th minute, but 9 of these 10 patients did not remember it
postoperatively. In conclusion, remifentanil, with no additional anesthetics,
exhibited hypnotic and amnesic effects
when stimulations were kept minimal.