Supplementasie van gebalanseerde narkose met fentaniel

Abstract

Fentanyl has been employed in the supplementation of balanced anaesthesia for a number of years. Despite claims by various investigators that fentanyl supplements balanced anaesthesia by suppressing nociceptive reflexes, this could not be substantiated in a double-blind clinical trial where the effects of fentanyl were compared with placebo. In a subsequent open trial, the effects of fentanyl, morphine and pentazocine were compared, in the supplementation of balanced anaesthesia. The only statistically significant difference between the effects of these 3 agents in this respect was that morphine and pentazocine caused central. depression in the postoperative phase , whereas the administration of fentanyl was not followed by postoperative depression. The author believes that narcotic analgesics such as fentanyl, morphine and pentazocine exerts their effects mainly through changing the perception and evaluation of pain impulses by the central nervous system. Pain is a subjective phenomenon. It can only occur in an awake subject and not in a subject under narcosis such as general anaesthesia.