Intravenous versus inhalation anaesthesia for one-lung ventilation

Sometimes only one lung (of two) is ventilated during anaesthesia. Possible reasons are to facilitate surgical exposure, prevent cystic rupture of the unventilated lung, or to prevent contamination of one lung by the other. During one-lung ventilation, anaesthesia is maintained either by delivering a volatile anaesthetic to the ventilated lung or by infusing an intravenous anaesthetic. It is possible that the method chosen to maintain anaesthesia may affect patient outcomes.
We included nine controlled studies that enrolled 291 participants. There was no evidence of important differences in outcomes for anaesthesia maintained by intravenous versus inhalational anaesthesia during one-lung ventilation. Researchers should include outcomes important to patients when assessing the affect of anaesthetic technique during one-lung ventilation. These include adverse postoperative effects and any experiences of intraoperative awareness.