Arrhythmia and oral surgery: induction of anaesthesia with althesin.

The high incidence of cardiac arrhythmias during oral surgery has received considerable attention in recent years (Kaufman, 1965, 1966; Ryder, 1971; Alexander, 1971; Thurlow, 1972; Rollason and Hall, 1973). Dodds and Twissell (1972) showed that the recently introduced intravenous anaesthetic Althesin protected the cat heart against arrhythmias induced by the combination of halothane and adrenaline. Warren (1972) considered that the drug had an anti-arrhythmic action on the heart in patients undergoing outpatient dental extractions. The purpose of this paper is to present evidence that induction of anaesthesia with Althesin has a protective effect against arrhythmias induced by the stimulation of oral surgery in man.