Objectives:

The present study has been planned for the purpose of defining at what ages and which behaviors the negative changes of behavior of the children having a minor surgery under sevofluran anesthesia have the most density and what the condition of the behaviors are at the end of monitoring of 4 weeks.

Methods:

Following the Ethics Committee approval and parental consents, children of 2 to 10 years old planned to be operated due to inguinal area pathologies have been included in the study. All the patients were premedicated with 0,5 mg/kg oral midazolam 30 minutes before the planned operation. The anesthesia induction and maintenance have been performed using sevoflurane and all the patients have received caudal block for post-operative pain control. Families monitored their children with respect to post-operative 1 hour agitation, then they have been called at the end of the 1st, 2nd and 4th weeks and they have been given questionnaires about which they had previously notified.

Results:

Agitation has been observed in a total of 44 patients (51 %). Number of patients with a mild agitation was considerably high compared with number of patients with other levels of agitation (p<0.05). About 63 % (30 patients) among those with agitation were treated with diagnosis of mild agitation, about 25 % (11 patients) has been treated with diagnosis of moderate agitation and about 7 % (3 patients) has been treated with diagnosis of severe agitation. Negative changes of behavior have been observed in 24 patients (28 %) at the end of the 1st week, in 11 patients (13 %) at the end of the 2nd week and in only 5 patients (6 %) at the end of the 4th week. It has been observed that post-operative negative behavior changes arose generally in sleep-related behaviors, that the most affected age group was 4 to 8 years old and while negative behavior changes have been observed in about 27,5 % of the children at the end of the 1st week, the ratio was 13 % at the end of the 2nd week and decreased to 6 % at the end of the 4th week.

Conclusions:

Agitation following same-day minor surgery under sevoflurane anesthesia in children is observed in the age group of 4 to 8 years old more frequently. Also, postoperative negative changes of behavior are observed in the age group of 4 to 8 years old. Most frequently in the form of anxiety of separation from parents and changes in sleep behaviors, all of which completely resolved at the end of the 4th week.

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