Laryngeal mask airway without muscle relaxant in femoral head replacement in elderly patients

Abstract

The number of elderly patients undergoing femoral head replacement surgeries is on the increase. These patients often suffer from comorbidity such as cardiovascular and cerebrovascular complications, which limits the ability of medical teams to employ anesthesia. Thus, alternative methods are required. The aim of this study was to examine the advantage of laryngeal mask airway (LMA) in the absence of muscle relaxant in elderly patients undergoing femoral head replacement operations. Fifty patients (27 males and 23 females) undergoing femoral head replacements were selected for the study between March 2013 and May 2014. The mean value for the age in this group was 74.6±12.5 years. The patients were randomly distributed into two groups of 25. One group was designated as the treatment group and the second group as the control group. For the treatment group, LMA without muscle relaxant was used, and the control group received routine anesthesia. Variations in heart rate (HR), mean arterial pressure (MAP) and oxygen saturation (SPO2) in the two groups were monitored at different times. Clinical efficacy and muscle relaxation effects were also analyzed. For the treatment group, the HR, MAP and SPO2 measurements did not reveal any significant variation while these values in the control group demonstrated important dissimilarities. Time to recovery, time to extubation and incidence of throat pain in the treatment group were all markedly decreased as compared to those in control group. The operation time in the treatment group was not significantly different to that of control group. The satisfaction of the muscle relaxation effect in the treatment group was significantly higher than that in the control group while the incidence of adverse reactions was not considerably different. In conclusion, the use of LMA without using muscle relaxant in femoral head replacement surgeries performed on elderly patients showed to be effective and safe.