Desflurane versus sevoflurane to reduce blood loss in maxillofacial surgery.

Purpose: In our study, desflurane was hypothesized to reduce blood loss more than sevoflurane, both used with targeted mild controlled hypotension.

Patients And Methods: A total of 20 American Society of Anesthesiologists Class I patients undergoing maxillofacial elective surgery for maxillary and mandibular osteotomies were randomized to a desflurane group or a sevoflurane group. Anesthesia was performed with an end tidal value of the inhaled agent to obtain a bispectral index value <30 but without burst-suppression patterns (minimal alveolar concentration age-corrected between 0.7 and 0.9). Remifentanil was administered at a dose of 0.5 microg x kg(-1) x min(-1) to obtain analgesia and a <2 surgical field level in Fromme's modified scale. Sodium-nitroprusside was administered on demand to have a surgical field level of <2 when the anesthesia plan was not sufficient to achieve this target. The minimal value of the mean arterial pressure achievable was 60 mm Hg.

Results: In the desflurane group, blood loss was more restricted. The hypotensive drug was used in 8 patients in the sevoflurane group and 2 patients in the desflurane group.

Conclusions: Anesthesia with desflurane can reduce blood loss and could give an acceptable surgical field with mild controlled hypotension and with a substantial reduction in the vasoactive drug requirement. These data need to be assessed with an enlargement of the statistical sample.