Gender Differences in Recovery Times from General Anesthesia Using Sevoflurane and the Bispectral Index Monitor

摘要

Optimization of patient care is one goal of anesthesia providers. With individualized care nurse anesthetists can achieve high degrees of patient satisfaction, reduce overall costs and improve patient outcomes. One concern for the anesthesia provider is the differing responses to pharmacological interventions between patients, especially between genders. In the past, research in the area of gender differences was hindered due to Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines. Female subjects of childbearing years were excluded from participating in Phase I and early Phase II pharmacological clinical trials (Merkatz, Temple, Sobel, Feiden, & Kessler, 1993). In 1993, the FDA became aware of the need to include females in bioequivalence studies and released new guidelines regarding this (Chen et al., 2000). Following the release of these guidelines, research in the area of gender differences began to progress.