Purpose:

This prospective, randomized, double-blind, controlled study was designed to investigate the effects of tramadol on the bispectral index (BIS) during anesthesia with sevoflurane and N2O.

Methods:

60 ASA class 1 and 2 patients, scheduled for elective lumbar microdiscectomy operation under general anesthesia, were included in this study. None of the patients were premedicated; anesthesia was induced with thiopental 5 mg.kg-1 and rocuronium 0,6 mg.kg-1, and maintained with 40% N2O-O2 mixture and sevoflurane. At induction of anesthesia, subjects were randomly allocated into 2 groups to receive either saline (control group), or tramadol 2 mg kg-1 (T group) intravenously. Hemodynamic data and BIS values were then recorded until the completion of the operation, during which time the concentrations of sevoflurane were not modified.

Results:

The BIS values were significantly different between groups throughout the operation. No significant changes in the hemodynamics were noted, except mean arterial blood pressure in the T group which was significantly high in the first 5 minutes of entubation.

Conclusions:

There were no patients that has BİS values more than 60 or who presented explicit recall of events under anesthesia. Tramadol didn’t seem to cause a problem with respect to depth of anesthesia and can be safely administered perioperatively.

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