Baroreflex Integrity: A Comparative Study between Sevoflurane and Propofol with Sevoflurane Anesthesia

Background: Arterial baroreflex function is an important short-term neural control system aiming at guaranteeing the homeostasis of the organism. The characterization of baroreflex is based on the assessment of the baroreflex sensitivity derived as the variation of heart period, approximated as the time interval between two consecutive R peaks on the ECG (RR), per unit change of Systolic Arterial Pressure (SAP). Methods: This comparative study included 40 patients who were scheduled for laparoscopic gynecological surgery. Patients were divided into two groups (Sevoflurane-group) and (combined Propofol Sevo group) with 20 patient in each group. Pressor and depressor tests were done pre, intra and postoperative with recording systolic blood pressure and R-R interval as well as the diastolic overshoot in the awake state, under anesthesia and postoperatively. Results: There were no significant differences in patient population demographic data, awake pretest SBP and HR. The results of our study suggest that there was no significant depression of baroreceptors regarding both groups, on the other hand, blood pressure was more affected when using sevoflurane alone than in the combined group. Conclusion: Data obtained from this study showed that there was no depression of baroreceptors either in sevoflurane or in the combined group. On the other hand, haemodynamics were more affected when using sevoflurane alone than in the combined group.