The Incidence of Headache after Inhalational General Anesthesia

Introduction & Inhalation gases that are used for general anesthesia influence central nervous system. Headache is one of the most common complications of the patients in recovery room. The more basic and exact the pain control and monitoring of patients’ condition in recovery room is, the more practicable prevention of the next uncontrollable accidents is, and the more the rate of patient's satisfaction will be. This study was done with the goal of prevalence detection of headache after inhalational general anesthesia with halothane and nitrous oxide in patients who referred to Yasuj training hospitals for being under the elective operation. Subjects of this study were 417 patients referred to Yasuj training hospitals for elective operation. All of the patients were under inhalational general anesthesia. Before anesthesia the patients were asked about previous chronic headache, age, sex and smoking. After the complete return of consciousness until the patients were in recovery room, they were monitored for headache. In this study, most of the patients (66.7%) complained about headache. Rate of headache in men (80.9%) was more than women (53.1%). The most prevalence of headache was in the age between10-15 and the least was in the age between 26-40. Headache in the group who didnt have the history of chronic headache was more prevalent. There wasnt any meaningful relationship between headache appearing after operation of anesthesia and the length of anesthesia. The rate of headache in smokers (82.4%) was higher than in nonsmokers (63.3%). There wasn’t any meaningful relationship between headache and the method of oxygenation during anesthesia. This study shows the high prevalence of headache in inhalational general anesthesia which can be attributed to smoking, history of chronic headache, age and sex. With the recognition of disposing factors and their removal, patient's satisfaction will be more and the cure expenses will be less.