Trace Anesthetic Effect on Perceptual, Cognitive and Motor Skills

摘要

Twenty males, paid volunteer medical or dental students were exposed on two occasions to four hours of inhalation of either air or 500 ppm nitrous oxide and 15 ppm halothane in air. Immediately following this, a battery of tests of perceptual cognitive and motor skills were administered to them. Evaluating their responses compared to their control conditions when they breathed only air, there was a significant decrement in performance following anesthetic exposure on a task of divided attention between auditory and visual signals, a visual tachistoscopic test, and memory tests involving digit span and recall of word pairs. These findings may indicate a subtle but significant negative effect on the ability of anesthesiologists to provide vigilant care for their patients. Further investigation of possible long-term effects upon the effective function and accident record of the anesthetist is indicated.