This study aims to find out if sevoflurane causes any cell damage to patients undergoing general anaesthesia. In case of any damage, the reversibility of the damage is also assessed. This is a prospective, comparative study carried out in all children scheduled for surgical repair of cleft lip or palate admitted in the Department of Plastic Surgery under Smile Train organisation ìn our hospital,who satisfy the inclusion and exclusion criteria.

STUDY GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

1. To find out if sevoflurane induces genomic instability in children undergoing cleft lip and palate repair.
2. To assess the magnitude of genomic damage caused by the sevoflurane anaesthesia.
3. To evaluate the reversibility of the induced genomic instability when exposure is discontinued.

STUDY DESIGN Type of study : Prospective Comparative Study Research population : All children scheduled for surgical repair of cleft lip or palate admitted in the Department of Plastic Surgery of our hospital, who satisfy the inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Sample Size : A total of 30 children will be enrolled for the study. METHODOLOGY Children scheduled to undergo surgical repair of cleft lip or palate were enrolled for the study, after addressing the inclusion and exclusion criteria.

A peripheral blood sample of 1.5 ml (S-1) will be taken before the induction of anaesthesia .All children will be randomly allocated into two groups - group S and P.All children will be premedicated with Inj.Glycopyrolate 0.01 mg/kg . Children in group S will be induced with sevoflurane, whereas children in group P will be induced with propofol.All children will be intubated using I / V Vecuronium 0.1 mg / kg .Analgesia will be provided using I / V Fentanyl 1.5 mcg / kg. Depth of anaesthesia will be maintained with sevoflurane in group S and with propofol infusion in group P. The vitals will be monitored as usual intraop and the children will be extubated at the end of the surgery.

Peripheral blood samples of 1.5 ml each will be taken immediately after extubation (S-2) , after 48 hours (S-3)and after 120 hours (S-4).A fifth blood sample (S-5) will be taken on the 14th postoperative day All the blood samples will be evaluated for genomic instability using Alkaline Comet Assay by the Genetics Lab of our hospital.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS

The findings of this study will be analysed using Chi-square test, Student's t-test, Mann-Whitney U test, mean and standard deviation to yield the final results. The study will be considered statistically significant with a p value of less than 0.05

Inclusion Criteria

• Children must have isolated cleft lip or palate.
• The surgery must be a primary repair of cleft lip or palate.
• The minimum duration of the surgery must be 90 minutes.

Exclusion Criteria

• Children who have undergone previous surgery.
• Children who have syndromic cleft lip or palate.
• Children with bleeding disorders.
• Children with known allergy to any of the concerned drugs.

This is a double blinded study, where the participants are randomly selected using a computer - generated number and allocated to any one of the two groups. Both the patient and the outcome assessor will be blinded.