Comparison of Cardiovascular, Respiratory, and Metabolic Effects of Halothane-ether Azeotropic Mixture with Those of Methoxyflurane Anaesthesia in Man.

SXNC~. ITS INTnODUC~ON by Hudon, the 1~ earned a place of its own an the armament~ have gwen detailed consideration to the e] stated factual mformatmn about ats con unpleasant side-effects Adverse comments based on casual trial, nonetheless bespeak among other established agents particular vascular actions by Wyant, 1 Dobkm," D~cl" pretatlon of their measurements, however, are purely pharmacological, conducted ou alothane-ether azeotroplc m~xture has mum of anaesthesm Numerous studms lineal aspects of ~ts admlLmstratmn and venmnce, safety, and wrtual lack of and controversial athtudes, sometimes the influence exerted by this azeotrope attentmn has been g~ven to its eardm~ne ~ and thmr collaborators The raterremains difficult because thmr studms side the operatmg room and In known arhfieml conditions The vah&ty of thellL methods rests on solid foundations, and this study does not intend to refute their (onclusmns However, their l.esults can hardly be said to be those which ,one ,~ianll encounter m daily practice Everybody will agree that surgery IS a far greater physmlogmal stress to the pahent than anaesthesm, and this fact should not be ignored when one 1,s deahng with the respiratory and cardiovascular activity of patients who, usually, are anaesthetized for and durmg surgew The purpose of th~s report is to evaluate the valmus physmlogma] responses associated w~th the admm~stratlon of halothane-ether azeotrope in patients who at the same time were submitted to minor surgmal procedures The wrtue of this approach, as stressed by Prme, 4 is that it describes changes which occur tinder con&tions likely to met m everyday practme In a preceding papel, we have described the pharmacologmal effects of methoxyflurane during ,I, urgmal anaesthesia In man ~ As both stu&es were conducted[ m exactly the same way, we shall take the opportumty to draw a comparison bet-ween these two drugs