Abstract: Objective · To explore the correlation of etomidate dose and bispectral index (BIS) in children with congenital heart disease shunting from left to right during anesthesia induction.  Methods · After general anesthesia induction to 24 children with congenital heart disease shunting from left to right, sevoflurane inhaling was stopped in order to make the BIS value gradually return to 80. Intravenous injection of etomidate was sustained by 0.3 mg/(kg·min) until the BIS value reached 40. The heart rate (HR), arterial blood pressure (ABP) and central venous pressure (CVP) of the patients were recorded when BIS value was 80, 70, 60, 50， and 40, respectively.The correlation of etomidate dose and BIS value in the children during anesthesia induction was analyzed.  Results · There were no significant hemodynamic changes when the BIS value  were from 80 to 40. The amount of etomidate was highly negatively correlated with the BIS value (r=-0.769, P<0.01), the average dose of etomidate in children under 2 years of age was significantly higher than that in children over 2 years old (P=0.034).  Conclusion · The etomidate dose is highly negatively correlated with the BIS value. Etomidate has less influence on hemodynamic parameters of children with congenital heart disease shunting from left to right. The BIS value may have relationship with patients’ age.

Key words: etomidate, bispectral index, congenital heart disease, children