C. Clarke, T. Currie
Oct 1, 1964
Citations
0
Influential Citations
3
Citations
Journal
Anaesthesia
Abstract
Methoxyflurane, a fluorinated ether, was introduced as a useful clinical anaesthetic by Artusio et a!. in I960 1 . On theoretical grounds it was anticipated that it would have properties similar to both diethyl ether and halothanez. Halothane has been used extensively as an anzsthetic during cardiopulmonary bypass for open heart surgery3. It has been shown to be a myocardial depressant and to lower the peripheral vascular resistance4. During perfusion the vasodilatory effect of halothane is desirable; but the depressant action on the myocardium may be an embarrassment at the completion of the intracardiac manoeuvres. It was considered that methoxyllurane, while retaining the useful properties of halothane, might prove to have a less depressant effect on the myocardium. In recent studies there have been conflicting reports on the cardiovascular effects of methoxyflurane 59. This paper describes an experiment, utilizing an extracorporeal blood oxygenator, where the myocardial and peripheral vascular effects of methoxyflurane on dogs could be observed independently.