An Investigation Into Quality of Recovery After General Anesthesia With Isoflurane and Propofol in Patients Undergoing Abdominal Hysterectomy.

Background: The quality of postanesthesia recovery is among the important issues of general anesthesia that affect the patient's ability to perform daily activities. This study hence aimed to investigate the effects of general anesthesia with isoflurane and propofol on the quality of recovery (QoR) in patients undergoing an abdominal hysterectomy.

Methods: This clinical trial was conducted on 80 women aged 30-65 years who visited Ayatollah Rouhani Hospital of Babol for an elective abdominal hysterectomy in 2020. Based on a randomized block design (4 blocks of 20), the participants were equally assigned to two groups of propofol (P) and isoflurane (I). The QoR-15 scale was employed to measure the QoR in terms of physical and mental dimensions, as primary outcomes, and duration of anesthesia, duration of surgery, response time, quality of extubation, changes in blood pressure and heart rate, length of stay in the recovery unit, Aldrete score, pain score, and prevalence of postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV), as secondary outcomes.

Results: The results showed that there was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of postoperative physical and mental changes (P = 0.142), except for the second night after surgery (P = 0.001). The QoR, both physically and mentally, significantly changed in both groups over time (P ＜ 0.05). The results also indicated that response time (P ＜ 0.001), quality of extubation (P = 0.01), prevalence of PONV (P = 0.001), and increase in blood pressure (P = 0.02) were significantly lower in the propofol group (P) than in the isoflurane group (I). There was no significant difference between the two groups in the length of stay in the recovery unit (P = 0.44), pre-discharge Aldrete score (P = 0.31), pain score (P = 0.18), duration of anesthesia (P = 0.30), duration of surgery (P = 0.64), and heart rate (P = 0.30).

Conclusions: Propofol outperformed isoflurane in terms of response time, quality of extubation, prevalence of PONV, and increase in blood pressure. In addition, the physical and mental QoR on the second night after surgery was higher in patients anesthetized with propofol compared to those anesthetized with isoflurane.