Comparison of patient-controlled sedation with either methohexitone or propofol

We studied 42 patients undergoing oral surgery under local anaesthesia withi.v. sedation, allocated randomly to receive either methohexitone (group M)or propofol (group P) for patient-controlled sedation (PCS). Group Mpatients self-administered 2.5-mg (0.5 ml) bolus doses of methohexitone andgroup P, 5-mg (0.5 ml) doses of propofol, without a lockout. The 0.5-mlbolus dose was delivered over 7.2 s for both drugs. The procedure wascompleted satisfactorily in all patients. Patients in both groups achievedtheir desired levels of sedation. No patient lost verbal contact. Group Mpatients had higher heart rates during the procedure. The lowest SpO2values recorded were 92% and 95% for group P and group M, respectively.Immediately after operation patients in group M reported that they feltmore sleepy than those in group P (P < 0.01) but there were nodifferences at subsequent times. The results of the psychomotor tests werecomparable for the two groups after operation, except for the "posting boxtask" at 15 min after operation when the mean decrement (compared withpreoperative performance) was - 3% for group P and -13% for group M (P <0.05). More patients in group P complained of pain in their hand. Weconclude that methohexitone is a suitable alternative drug to propofol forPCS.