Journal of anesthesia
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The neurophysiologic mechanism of the suppressive action of enflurane on spinal nociceptive transmission was examined in rabbits with intact and with transected spinal cords. Enflurane suppressed nociceptive responses in both intact and transected spinal cord groups. ⋯ These results suggest that enflurane suppresses nociceptive responses by activating descending inhibitory systems and directly suppressing activity at the spinal level. This suppressive action of enflurane does not interact with the opioid receptor.
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Journal of anesthesia · Mar 1994
Subanesthetic sevoflurane does not affect sympathetic or parasympathetic function.
To evaluate the effects of subanesthetic enflurane and sevoflurane on the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), the blood level of norepinephrine (NE) and fluctuations in the R-R intervals were measured on electrocardiogram in humans given either 0.5 MAC enflurane or sevoflurane. Enflurane suppressed circulating plasma NE and elevated coefficients of variation (CV) of R-R intervals after 20 and 30 min of inhalation. ⋯ Sevoflurane lowered the CV to 84% of control after 30 min of inhalation. These results indicate that subanesthetic concentrations of sevoflurane are unlikely to perturb sympathetic and parasympathetic activities in humans without surgical stimulation when compared with enflurane.