Sevoflurane is one of the most popular anesthetics, used in pediatric anesthesia, but emergence agitation is more common with using sevoflurane as compared to that with using the other inhalation anesthetics. Sevoflurane exerts its effect on γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) ergic transmission. This study aimed to investigate if genetic variations at the GABR γ 2 (single nucleotide polymorphism [SNP] 211037 C/T, nucleotide position 3145 in intron A/G) on the 5q33 chromosome were associated with the development of emergence agitation when sevoflurane is used.

One hundred fourteen, pre-school aged patients who were to undergo tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy were included in this study. Anesthesia was induced with 5 mg/kg of thiopental sodium, 0.02 mg/kg of atropine and 0.1 mg/kg of vecuronium, and this was maintained with 3% sevoflurane and 50% N₂O in oxygen. The incidence of emergence agitation and the emergence agitation scores were assessed at 0 min, 10 min, 20 min and 30 min after arriving at the post anesthetic care unit (PACU). Genomic DNA from peripheral leukocytes was isolated using the QIAamp Blood Minikits and the GABR γ 2 genetic polymorphisms were analyzed by performing polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method.

There were no significant differences of the emergence agitation scores among the genotypes in the GABR γ 2 -SNP211037 C/T and GABR γ 2 -nucleotide position 3145 in intron A/G. There was a trend in which the AA group in the GABR γ 2 -nucleotide position 3145 in intron A/G has a lower incidence of emergence agitation compared with the non-AA group, but this was without statistical significance (P = 0.07).

There is a possibility that the GABR2 genetic polymorphism may affect the development of emergence agitation when sevoflurane is used in pediatric anesthesia.