Anesthesia and Postoperative Pain

The purpose of this study is to compare post-operative pain after anesthesia with either isoflurane or propofol. Each group will be further randomized to receive intranasal nicotine or placebo in order to detect potential pronociceptive action of isoflurane. The study is a randomized, prospective, double-blinded controlled trial. Eighty adult women undergoing uterine surgery will be recruited for this study. Enrollment in this study is limited to women, because the animal studies suggest that females have a greater hyperalgesic response to volatile anesthetics than do males. The patient will be given one of two standard anesthetics for their surgery: isoflurane or propofol. The investigators are interested in these two anesthetics because we seek to see if there exists a difference in their effects on a patient's perception of pain, as has been shown to be the case in animal studies but has not yet been studied in humans.