Anest. intenziv. Med. 2011;22(2):90-94

Comparison of the cost of balanced anaesthesia maintained with or without nitrous oxide at a university hospitalAnaesthesiology - Original Paper

Adamus Milan¹, Koutná Jiřina¹, Hrabálek Lumír², Konupčíková Kateřina¹, Fischerová Lucie¹, Frančáková Jana^1,*

¹ Klinika anesteziologie a resuscitace, Lékařská fakulta Univerzity Palackého v Olomouci, Fakultní nemocnice Olomouc

² Neurochirurgická klinika, Lékařská fakulta Univerzity Palackého v Olomouci, Fakultní nemocnice Olomouc

Objective:
To compare the cost of balanced anaesthesia with or without nitrous oxide.

Design:
A prospective, clinical, randomized, non-blinded study.


Setting:
Department of anaesthesiology, university hospital.

Materials and methods:
Following local ethics committee approval and after obtaining informed consent, patients scheduled for elective surgery under balanced anaesthesia with tracheal intubation were studied. The patients were randomized into two groups with different anaesthetic gases used. In Group AIR, air/oxygen/sevoflurane was administered; in Group N₂O, nitrous oxide/oxygen/sevoflurane was used. The cost of the anaesthetic gases and sevoflurane was determined and the Mann-Whitney test was used to compare the expenses in the two groups. The results were expressed as median and quartiles; P value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results:
In Group AIR (10 males, 28 females) and Group N₂O (7 males, 35 females), the demographics and duration of surgery were similar. The inhalational component of anaesthesia was more expensive in Group AIR (p = 0.005), due to higher consumption of sevoflurane (p = 0.001). There was no difference in the cost of oxygen between the groups (p = 0.138). Less sufentanil was used in Group N₂O (p = 0.047). The consumption of the remaining anaesthetic agents (midazolam, propofol) and neuromuscular blocking agents (cisatracurium, rocuronium) was equal in Group AIR and Group N₂O.

Conclusion:
Using nitrous oxide as part of balanced inhalational anaesthesia reduced the cost of anae-sthesia.

Keywords: pharmaco-economics; balanced anaesthesia; nitrous oxide; sevoflurane

Received: January 4, 2011; Accepted: February 3, 2011; Published: April 1, 2011  Show citation