Total intravenous anesthesia versus single breath technique and anesthesia maintenance with sevoflurane for bariatric operations

Background: The choice of anesthetic technique for general anesthesia in morbidly obese patients remains controversial. We aimed to compare blood gases, recovery and hemodynamic parameters using TIVA and sevoflurane anesthesia in bariatric surgery. Methods: The study was performed with permission of the ethics committee.We studied 40 morbidly obese patients allocated to 2 groups. The total I.V. anesthesia (TIVA) group was named Group T, and the sevoflurane group was named Group S. In Group T, anesthesia induction was achieved with propofol. In Group S, anesthesia induction was achieved by sevoflurane with single breath technique, with maintenance provided with 1-2% volume sevoflurane. Student t, Chi square and ANOVA tests were used for data analysis; p-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: There was no significant difference between the 2 groups in demographic data, blood gas values and recovery characteristic. Hemodynamic values were significantly lower in Group T than Group S, during and after the operative period. Conclusion: While sevoflurane induction and maintenance is a suitable anesthetic modality for obese patients, TIVA can be applied easily in those patients possessing no extra risk factors other than morbid obesity.