Does the pre-treatment with intravenous atropine or glycopyrrolate prevent, or ameliorate arrhythmias during halothane anaesthesia for adenotonsillectomy in children?

ABSTRACT

In this work, the effect of pretreatment with anticholinergic drugs on the incidence of cardiac arrhythmias during halothane anesthesia in children was studied. ASA I-II unpremedicated children undergoing adenotonsillectomy were randomly allocated in three groups. Intravenous atropine [0.02 mg/kg] was given in group I, glycopyrrolate [0.005 mg/kg] in group II and physiological saline was given in group III three minutes before induction of anesthesia. Children breath spontaneously with 60% N2O in oxygen, induction was done with thiopentone and succinylcholine, monitoring of ECG, blood pressure and oxygen saturation was done. Supraventricular tachycardia occurred in 80%, 40% and 30% of children in groups I, II and III, respectively. It was concluded that the use of anticholinergic drugs was not prevented, but it ameliorated the incidence of arrhythmias during halothane anesthesia in children and they induced supraventricular tachycardia, especially atropine, but bradycardia was common in group III and was treated with atropine 0.2 mg/kg