Abstract:Objective To study whether epidural anesthesia combined with general anesthesia without an opioid analgesic in patients with history of asthma could effectively prevent an asthma attack during operation. Methods Fifty patients (ASAII -III), aged 30-60 y, with the history of bronchial asthma and pulmonary lesions, were randomly divided into group I (routine tracheal intubation group, n = 25) and group II (epidural anesthesia combined with general anesthesia without an opioid analgesic group, n = 25). The MAP, HR, BIS, SpO2, Ppeak and PETCO2 were recorded before anesthesia (T0), before intubation after anesthesia induction (T1), at the moment of trachea intubation (T2), 5 min after intubation (T3), resuscitation before extubation (T4), and 5 min after extubation (T5). Other indexes were recorded too, including the number of intraoperative asthma cases, endotracheal tube tolerance after sober, incision pain after sober, agitation and struggle after operation, intraoperative awareness, throat pain and discomfort after surgery and so on. Results At various time points, the SpO2 and BIS values of the two groups were different (P < 0.05); the Ppeak in the group II was significantly lower than that in the group I (P < 0.05) and there was a significant difference in the variation trend of the Ppeak between the two gruops (P < 0.05). Meanwhile, the incidences of asthma attack, endotracheal tube tolerance after sober and incision pain after sober in the group I were significantly higher than those in the group II (P < 0.05). There was no significant difference in agitation and struggle after operation, intraoperative awareness, or throat pain and discomfort after operation between the two groups (P > 0.05). Conclusions Epidural anesthesia combined with general anesthesia without an opioid analgesic can be safely used in patients with the history of asthma, and can effectively reduce the possibility of intraoperative asthma attack, which is worth further study in clinical anesthesia.