Early extubation after coronary artery surgery in efficiently rewarmed patients: a postoperative comparison of opioid anesthesia versus inhalational anesthesia and thoracic epidural analgesia.

Twenty-eight patients were studied after uncomplicated aortocoronary bypass surgery with hypothermic cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). In all patients residual hypothermia was effectively treated by the use of extended rewarming during CPB and postoperatively by an external heat source. This treatment almost eliminated postoperative shivering, and it resulted in the lowering of oxygen uptake, carbon dioxide production, and required ventilatory volumes to stable levels where spontaneous breathing could be used safely. The patients were divided into two groups. In group I (n = 12), intraoperative anesthesia was based on an intravenous (IV) opioid (phenoperidine), which caused persistent respiratory depression and made mechanical ventilation necessary for a mean postoperative time period of 10.7 +/- 3.8 hours even with the rewarming. In group II (n = 16), thoracic epidural analgesia and intraoperative general anesthesia with enflurane were used. In this group, postoperative metabolic and ventilatory requirements were stable and low, finger skin temperature was normalized earlier, systemic vascular resistance was lower, and stroke index was higher. Emergence from anesthesia was uneventful and was achieved early postoperatively in Group II. The patients had good pain relief and were mentally alert. Adequate spontaneous breathing was resumed quickly and endotracheal extubation was performed within the first two postoperative hours (1.6 +/- 0.5 hours). No complications or increased morbidity occurred, and no patient needed to be reintubated in Group II.