Anaes · Volatile & inhalational agents

Sevoflurane

Also known as Fluoromethyl 2,2,2-trifluoro-1-(trifluoromethyl)ethyl ether · Fluorinated methyl isopropyl ether · Sevorane · Inhalational induction agent · Default volatile agent · Compound A formation

Sevoflurane is a fluorinated methyl isopropyl ether and the most widely used volatile anaesthetic agent in the world, the default maintenance agent in much of adult practice and the agent of choice for paediatric anaesthesia. The framework rests on four exam-critical ideas: its non-pungent, sweet odour makes it the only modern volatile agent suitable for inhalational induction, especially in the needle-phobic child and the difficult intravenous access; its low blood-gas partition coefficient of 0.65 (second only to desflurane among the volatile liquids) means a rapid equilibration between alveoli, blood and brain and so a rapid induction and recovery; its potency is measured by a minimum alveolar concentration of about 2 percent in adults, and like every volatile it is a trigger of malignant hyperthermia; and its distinctive chemical hazard is the degradation to compound A in desiccated soda lime and the formation of carbon monoxide in desiccated baralyme, balanced against an environmental cost as a greenhouse gas. Built on the explainable machine-learning work on perioperative cognition (Lim 2026), the review of general anaesthetics and postoperative delirium (Wu 2026), the sevoflurane-neurocognition FTO m6A mechanism study (Li 2026), the total intravenous versus sevoflurane cardiac-surgery trial (Fazekas 2026), the sevoflurane-versus-propofol calmodulin study (Wang 2026), the desflurane-versus-propofol neurocognitive trial in the elderly (Somnuke 2026), the midazolam-premedication-sevoflurane study (Nacar 2026), and the haemorrhage-altered sevoflurane pharmacokinetics study (Gruell 2026).