title: Suitability of Althesin as a short-acting anaesthetic agent. A comparative study with equipotent doses of methohexitone.
abstract: The suitability of Althesin as a short-acting anaesthetic agent was studied by comparing it to methohexitone. Twenty-eight anaestheias were given using equipotent doses of the two anaesthetics in order to anaesthetize 14 patients once with each drug. Thus the patients served as their own controls. Sleep induced by Althesin averaged 7 minutes, which was slightly but not statistically significantly longer than that produced by methohexitone (average 6 minutes). The time taken until orientation of the patients was complete was considerably longer with Althesin than with methohexitone. The responses to Althesin had a much wider range of individual variation in induction time, duration of anaesthesia and orientation time. After Althesin, three patients displayed mental confusion with anxiety on awakening. The recovery from anaesthesia was assessed by several recovery tests and observations, in addition to the patients' subjective assessments. Drowsiness was more manifest and persisted longer following Althesin than after methohexitone. Ninety minutes after anaesthesia, a tendency to collapse on standing was obvious following methohexitone, but this was not seen after Althesin. The level of test values and the physical status of the patients returned to pre-anaesthetic levels within 2 hours after both agents. The majority of the patients found anaesthesia with both compounds pleasant. However, they seemed to favour methohexitone as regards pleasantness and their subjective impression was of faster awakening or less postanaesthetic drowsiness.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000530:Alfaxalone Alfadolone Mixture / Q000009:adverse effects; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008723:Methohexital / Q000009:adverse effects; D008875:Middle Aged; D011277:Pregnanediones / Q000009:adverse effects
chemical_list: D011277:Pregnanediones; D000530:Alfaxalone Alfadolone Mixture; D008723:Methohexital