Electroencephalographic activity in children under enflurane anesthesia.

EEG, end-tidal CO2, neck muscle EMG, eye movements, and ECG were recorded in 17 children undergoing enflurane anesthesia combined with N2O and O2. All subjects were classified in the lowest risk group and had normal pre-anesthetic EEG recordings. Eleven subjects were breathing spontaneously and six were under controlled ventilation. Thirteen subjects were hyperventilated for short periods. As previously reported for adults, various signs of increased central nervous excitability appeared. At the enflurane concentration of 4% all three cases with PaCO2 below 32 mmHg showed generalized high voltage epileptic activity of grand mal type followed by several minutes of postictal slowing. One of these subjects also showed motor manifestations of the electrographic seizure activity. At 3% enflurane, three out of eight subjects showed electrographic seizure activity of poly-spike-suppression type. One of these children also had motor manifestations during this type of seizure activity at a PaCO2 of 31 mmHg. The results indicate that electrographic seizure activity is common among children with moderate hypocapnia at enflurane concentrations of 3% or more.