MedTrace Logo

Chocolate or Sevoflurane: Use of Parosmia to Facilitate More Cooperative Inhalation Inductions in Children

NCT06449157 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 50

Last updated 2025-08-11

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Children undergoing surgery and anesthesia are often negatively impacted by anxiety and fear in the preoperative period. Routine inhalational anesthetic induction is a unique aspect of pediatric anesthesia. Inhalation inductions are usually initiated with sevoflurane with or without nitrous oxide. While less pungent than other volatile agents, sevoflurane at high concentrations and flows used for inhalation inductions still causes children to often repel from the smell. This can lead to an unpleasant interaction and cause heightened anxiety for any subsequent procedures.

Olfactory senses are processed in the hippocampus and amygdala and tied to emotion and memory. Parosmia is the distortion of smell perception which can utilized to the pediatric anesthesiologists advantage. It has been demonstrated that using this phenomenon, the anesthesiologist can induce a better smell for the child leading to improved cooperation during an inhalation induction. However, limitations of this study include lack of randomization, small sample size, and use of a nominal scale of yes or no for face mask acceptance. The investigators identified no other studies to validate this potentially powerful tool to optimize anesthetic induction for pediatric patients.

The overall objective of this pilot randomized trial is to determine the feasibility of parosmia during inhalation inductions to decrease perioperative stress for children and provide key pilot data to power a larger study to determine effectiveness of parosmia during inhalation inductions to decrease perioperative stress for children and provide key pilot data to power a larger study to determine effectiveness of parosmia.

Conditions

  • Anesthesia
  • Pediatrics

Interventions

OTHER

Inhalation induction with parosmia

The experimental group will then be told that the patient's favorite smell will be put into the face mask via the "magical machine". The patient will be asked to take a deep breath thinking about that smell and then introduce sevoflurane. The patient will be asked if the chosen flavor is smelled and their response will be noted.

Sponsors & Collaborators

Principal Investigators

  • Pooja O'Neil, MD · Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
OTHER
Masking
DOUBLE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
5 Years
Max Age
13 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2024-10-10
Primary Completion
2025-08-07
Completion
2025-08-07

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

More Related Trials

Entities

Companies

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT06449157 on ClinicalTrials.gov