Korean J Anesthesiol.  1997 Oct;33(4):617-626. 10.4097/kjae.1997.33.4.617.

The Effects of Thoracic Epidural Anesthesia and Vagotomy on the Enflurane-Epinephrine Induced Arrhythmias in Rabbits

• Kim YC
• Kim HS
• Yeom JH
• Shin WJ
• Lee DH
• Ahn SW
• Chung HR
• Kim MY
• Lee SC

• KMID: 2237717
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4097/kjae.1997.33.4.617

Abstract

BACKGROUND: To evaluate the effects of thoracic epidural anesthesia, with or without bilateral vagotomy, epinephrine-induced arrhythmias were studied in 31 rabbits anesthetized with 1 MAC enflurane.
METHODS
Logdose protocol was used for the infusion of epinephrine; its arrhythmic dose being defined as the smallest infusion rate produced four or more continuous or intermittent arrhythmias within 15 seconds.
RESULTS
The values (geometric mean) of arrhythmic doses and the plasma concentration of epinephrine during arrhythmia were as follows: 10.21 g.kg 1.min 1 and 83.16 ng/ml in epidural control group; 118.90 g.kg 1.min 1 and 677.76 ng/ml in epidural lidocaine group (p<0.05); 6.34 g.kg-1.min 1 and 96.42 ng/ml in intravenous lidocaine group; 8.65 g.kg 1.min-1 and 44.64 ng/ml in vagotomized-epidural control group; and 12.03 g.kg 1.min 1 and 95.35 ng/ml in vagotomized- epidural lidocaine group.
CONCLUSIONS
The data suggest that thoracic epidural anesthesia raises the threshold for enflurane- epinephrine arrhythmias in rabbits and that this effect is eliminated by bilateral vagotomy.

Keyword

Anesthetics, volatile, enflurane; Anesthetic techniques, epidural; Heart, arrhythmias; Sympathetic nervous system, catecholamines, epinephrine

MeSH Terms

Anesthesia, Epidural*
Arrhythmias, Cardiac*
Enflurane
Epinephrine
Lidocaine
Plasma
Rabbits*
Vagotomy*
Enflurane
Epinephrine
Lidocaine