TY - JOUR
T1 - General anesthesia does not impair simulator driving skills in volunteers in the immediate recovery period - A pilot study
AU - Sinclair, David R.
AU - Chung, Frances
AU - Smiley, Alison
N1 - Funding Information:
From the Department of Anesthesiology,* University of Florida, Jacksonville, Florida, USA, the Department of Anesthesia,† Toronto Western Hospital, and the Human Factors North Inc.,‡ Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Address correspondence to: Dr. Frances Chung, Department of Anesthesia, Toronto Western Hospital, 399 Bathurst St., EC 2-046, Toronto, Ontario M5T 2S8, Canada. Phone: 416-603-5118; Fax: 416-603-6494; E-mail: frances.chung@uhn.on.ca This study was supported by a grant from the Society for Ambulatory Anesthesia Accepted for publication July 10, 2002. Revision accepted November 13, 2002.
Copyright:
Copyright 2017 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2003/3
Y1 - 2003/3
N2 - Purpose: The current recommendations to refrain from driving for 24 hr after general anesthesia (GA) lack evidence. Our objective was to measure impairment of driving performance at various time intervals after anesthesia using driving impairment at different blood alcohol concentrations (BAC) as a gold standard for comparison. Methods: Institutional Review Board approval was obtained. A cross-over design, within subject comparison was used. Twelve volunteers were randomized to three treatments: GA, alcohol, and no drug. Psychomotor recovery was assessed by Digit Symbol Substitution Test (DSST) and Trieger Dot Test (TDT). On the anesthetic day, GA was induced with propofol 2.5 mg·kg-1 and fentanyl 1μg·kg-1 and maintained with N2O-O2 50:50 and approximately one minimum alveolar concentration of desflurane by spontaneous ventilation for 30 min. Driving simulator test runs occurred at two, three, four, and 24 hr postanesthesia. On the alcohol treatment day, a vodka and orange juice beverage was administered to reach the legal limit for BAC in the province of Ontario, Canada (BAC 0.08%). On the control day, no drug was given. Driving simulator test runs corresponded to the same time of day as the postanesthetic test runs. Two-way analysis of variance for dependent samples (ANOVA) was performed using the SAS program. P values of less than 0.05 were considered significant. Results: There was no significant difference in postanesthetic driving skills at two, three, and four hours postanesthesia, and the corresponding control sessions. There was no significant difference among the three sessions with respect to pen and paper tests of psychomotor performance. Performance during the alcohol session differed significantly from that during the control and postanesthetic sessions. Conclusion: Certain driving skills return by two hours after one half hour of GA of propofol, desflurane, and fentanyl in a group of young volunteers.
AB - Purpose: The current recommendations to refrain from driving for 24 hr after general anesthesia (GA) lack evidence. Our objective was to measure impairment of driving performance at various time intervals after anesthesia using driving impairment at different blood alcohol concentrations (BAC) as a gold standard for comparison. Methods: Institutional Review Board approval was obtained. A cross-over design, within subject comparison was used. Twelve volunteers were randomized to three treatments: GA, alcohol, and no drug. Psychomotor recovery was assessed by Digit Symbol Substitution Test (DSST) and Trieger Dot Test (TDT). On the anesthetic day, GA was induced with propofol 2.5 mg·kg-1 and fentanyl 1μg·kg-1 and maintained with N2O-O2 50:50 and approximately one minimum alveolar concentration of desflurane by spontaneous ventilation for 30 min. Driving simulator test runs occurred at two, three, four, and 24 hr postanesthesia. On the alcohol treatment day, a vodka and orange juice beverage was administered to reach the legal limit for BAC in the province of Ontario, Canada (BAC 0.08%). On the control day, no drug was given. Driving simulator test runs corresponded to the same time of day as the postanesthetic test runs. Two-way analysis of variance for dependent samples (ANOVA) was performed using the SAS program. P values of less than 0.05 were considered significant. Results: There was no significant difference in postanesthetic driving skills at two, three, and four hours postanesthesia, and the corresponding control sessions. There was no significant difference among the three sessions with respect to pen and paper tests of psychomotor performance. Performance during the alcohol session differed significantly from that during the control and postanesthetic sessions. Conclusion: Certain driving skills return by two hours after one half hour of GA of propofol, desflurane, and fentanyl in a group of young volunteers.
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U2 - 10.1007/BF03017791
DO - 10.1007/BF03017791
M3 - Article
C2 - 12620945
AN - SCOPUS:0037359996
VL - 50
SP - 238
EP - 245
JO - Canadian journal of anaesthesia = Journal canadien d'anesthésie
JF - Canadian journal of anaesthesia = Journal canadien d'anesthésie
SN - 0008-2856
IS - 3
ER -