Jakobsson J, et al. - Through a search of PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library for studies including oxygen consumption (VO2) measurements before and after anesthesia induction, researchers examined the impacts of general anesthesia on VO2. They analyzed 24 studies including 453 subjects for VO2 changes provoked by anesthesia. It was noted that following surgical incision and during the post-operative period VO2 increased, after decreasing after induction of anesthesia. It was reported that heterogeneity was substantial among the studies and the overall evidence quality was very low. Findings suggested that general anesthesia most likely decreases oxygen consumption, although the effect estimate is uncertain.