The results of a new study conducted by scientists at the University of Pennsylvania have revealed an interesting feature of the female body in recovery from general anesthesia. The scientific work, published in the journal Neuroscience, demonstrates significant differences between men and women in the process of recovery from anesthesia, writes gazeta.ru.
The study involved 30 volunteers of both sexes, aged 22 to 40. All participants were given isoflurane, a popular inhalation anesthetic. Using electroencephalography, specialists monitored the participants’ brain activity both during and after anesthesia.
Female participants showed significantly faster recovery. They began to respond to auditory cues as early as 29 minutes after anesthesia administration, while men needed an average of 45 minutes. In addition, women showed better results in the speed and accuracy of cognitive tasks after awakening.
Parallel experiments on mice confirmed this pattern: females regained consciousness and control over their actions significantly faster than males. Researchers associate this feature with the influence of testosterone on sensitivity to anesthetics. Scientists emphasize that the identified differences in the reaction to anesthesia are characteristic of both humans and mice, which indicates the fundamental nature of this biological feature.
This finding may have important implications for improving anesthesia protocols to take into account gender differences in patients.