By Suzanne Rostler

NEW YORK, Mar 23 (Reuters Health) - Women appear to be less sensitive to the effects of anesthesia but more prone to its side effects, Australian researchers report.

The study in the March 24th issue of the British Medical Journal found that on average, women opened their eyes about 2 minutes faster and followed commands nearly 3 minutes faster than men did after an operation.

Women also faced a tougher recovery from surgery. They were more likely to suffer postoperative complications such as nausea and vomiting, headache and backache.

"Women wake up faster. This suggests that they are less sensitive to the intended effects of anesthetic drugs," Dr. Paul S. Myles, the study's lead author and an associate professor at Monash University in Prahran, Australia, said in an interview. "But they recover more slowly. This suggests that they are more sensitive to side effects of the drugs, or recover more slowly from the effects of surgery itself."

The findings support previous reports that three times more women than men have complained of being awake during surgery, and that women wake up almost twice as fast following general anesthesia.

The reasons why anesthesia affects women differently, however, remain a mystery.

"More research is needed to identify what factors cause these differences," Myles said. "By developing new drugs to improve recovery from anesthesia and surgery, we hope to be able to avoid major complications, get people back to their normal life, and save healthcare dollars," he told Reuters Health.

The results are based on interviews with 463 men and women undergoing elective procedures such as orthopedic, plastic and urological surgery.

Related MEDLINEplus Pages:

• Anesthesia