BACKGROUND: Gastrointestinal bowel movements are reduced by opioid-based anesthesia. Remifentanil is commonly used as total intravenous anesthesia. This study compared to the effect of various anesthetic methods on gastrointestinal bowel movement after colon surgery.

METHODS: Ninety patients were allocated randomly into three groups. Thirty patients received intraoperative inhalation anesthesia (desflurane + N₂O, Group I), 30 patients received intraoperative total intravenous anesthesia (propofol + remifentanil, Group II), and 30 patients received intraoperative epidural anesthesia (epidural lidocaine + propofol, Group III). All patients received postoperative epidural analgesia with a mixture of ropivacaine and morphine. The time to the first passage of flatus, hospital stay and visual analog pain scale were recorded.

RESULTS: There was no significant difference in first passage of flatus among groups (Group I: 92.7 ± 19.6, Group II: 86.9 ± 19.4, Group III: 81.9 ± 12.8 hours, P = 0.063). There were no significant difference in the hospital stay and visual analog scale among the three groups.

CONCLUSIONS: Total intravenous anesthesia with remifentanil did not reduce the gastrointestinal bowel movements compared with those of inhalation or epidural anesthesia.