Background
Remifentanil decreases blood loss during spinal surgery, rhinoplasty, and endoscopic sinus surgery. However, there are no reports regarding its effect on intraoperative blood loss during endoscopic body surface surgery. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of intraoperative remifentanil on blood loss during endoscopic subcutaneous mastectomy.
Methods
In this single-center, retrospective observational study conducted from August 2005 to June 2010, 443 patients who underwent either endoscopic subcutaneous partial mastectomy or quadrantectomy were included ( = 231 and 212, respectively). Patients were categorized into the remifentanil and non-remifentanil groups ( = 154 and 289, respectively) based on intraoperative use of remifentanil. We compared the amount of blood loss between the remifentanil and non-remifentanil groups.
Results
Blood loss was significantly smaller in the remifentanil group than in the non-remifentanil group in patients undergoing partial mastectomy (median [25%, 75%], 60 [30, 94] vs. 90 [50, 165] ml,  <  0.001) and quadrantectomy (90 [30, 163] vs. 140 [74, 220] ml,  = 0.001).
Conclusions
Intraoperative bleeding was significantly smaller in patients receiving remifentanil than that in those not receiving remifentanil during endoscopic subcutaneous mastectomies.