AIM: To explore the effects of sevoflurane combined with dexmedetomidine on emergence agitation(EA)in children under went general anesthesia in ophthalmology department.

METHODS: Totally 84 children underment elective ophthalmic surgery in the hospital from May to December 2018 were selected as the research objects. They were randomly divided into study group and control group with 42 cases in each group. All patients in haled sevoflurane to maintain general anesthesia. After anesthesia intubation, children in the study group were treated with intravenous injection of 0.5μg/kg of dexmedetomidine in a constant-speed while children in the control group were treated with same volume of normal saline. The monitoring data of heart rate(HR), mean arterial pressure(MAP)and serum stress response indexes such as norepinephrine(NE)and cortisol(Cor)during recovery period were obtained. The anesthesia recovery, EA and occurrence of complications were recorded.

RESULTS: There were obvious fluctuations of HR and MAP in the control group while awake, at 1min, 5min and 10min after extubation. There were significant differences at different time points(P<0.05), while there was no significant difference in study group(P>0.05). HR and MAP were significantly lower than those in control group at each time point(P<0.05). Levels of serum NE and Cor in study group while awake and at 10min after extubation were significantly lower than those in control group(P<0.05). There was no significant difference in spontaneous breathing recovery time or awake time between the two groups(P>0.05). Compared with the control group, the extubation time was significantly shorter and score of extubation quality was significantly lower in the study group(P<0.05). The incidence of EA in study group was significantly lower than that in control group(12% vs 31%)(P<0.05). There was no significant difference in the severity of EA or incidence of complications(P>0.05).

CONCLUSION: Sevoflurane combined with dexmedetomidine can effectively stabilize hemodynamics of children under went general anesthesia in ophthalmology department during recovery period, and reduce stress response, thus effectively reducing the incidence of EA, without affecting anesthesia recovery quality and with high safety. However, excessive sedation should be payed attention to.