Abstract
Background
Various strategies have been studied to reduce the propofol injection pain. This study was designed to find out effect-site target concentration (Ce) of remifentanil at which there was a 50% probability of preventing the propofol injection pain (EC50).
Methods
Anesthesia was induced with a remifentanil TCI (Minto model). The Ce of remifentanil for the first patient started from 2.0 ng/ml. The Ce of remifentanil for each subsequent patient was determined by the response of the previous patient by Dixon up-and-down method with the interval of 0.5 ng/ml. After the remifentanil reached target concentrations, propofol was administered via a target-controlled infusion system based on a Marsh pharmacokinetic model using a TCI device (Orchestra®; Fresenius-Vial, Brezins, France). The dose of propofol was effect site target-controlled infusion (TCI) of 3 µg/ml.