Recovery, psychomotor skills, and simulated driving after brief inhalational anesthesia with halothane or enflurane combined with nitrous oxide and oxygen.

Recovery from anesthesia was assessed in a controlled manner in 34 healthy student volunteers, using a psychomotor test battery 1 and 5 hours and a driving simulator 2, 4.5, and 7 hours after 3.5 minutes of anesthesia with halothane or enflurane combined with nitrous oxide and oxygen. Psychomotor performances remained significantly (P less than 0.05 to P less than 0.001) worse than in an unanesthetized control group for 5 hours after both halothane and enflurane. However, impairment of driving skills 4.5 hours after anesthesia was measurable only after halothane (P less than 0.05). It is concluded that after even brief periods of halothane or enflurane anesthesia patients should not drive or operate machinery for at least 7 hours. The magnitudes and durations of the residual effects of both agents on psychomotor performance were, however, less than those previously found after thiopental, methohexital, or diazepam.