A comparison of postoperative recovery times between isoflurane and enflurane for pediatric dental outpatient anesthesia.

Isoflurane is a volatile liquid anesthetic agent reported to have recovery times shorter than many anesthetic agents in current use. This study compared postoperative recovery times in pediatric patients receiving dental treatment under isoflurane to those receiving enflurane anesthesia. The study consisted of a retrospective review of anesthesia records for pediatric patients receiving isoflurane anesthesia. These patients were then matched to patients receiving enflurane anesthesia for age, weight, sex, race, and treatment time. A total of nine matched pairs were available for review. The average recovery time (as measured from extubation to discharge) for isoflurane was 53 minutes and for enflurane, 46 minutes. When the matched cases were analyzed by paired t-text, no statistically significant difference in recovery times was demonstrated at the 0.05 level. These findings suggest that there is no significant difference in postoperative recovery times between isofluane and enflurane in pediatric dental outpatients undergoing general anesthesia.