BACKGROUND The Wada procedure (the intracarotid amobarbital procedure) has been used widely to evaluate the hemispheric dominance of language and memory before temporal lobe surgery in patients with medically refractory seizures. Because of repeated shortage of sodium amobarbital, attempts have been made to find a suitable alternative to sodium amobarbital. The aim of our study was to review ou...

Anesthetics may induce specific changes that alter the balance of activity within neural networks. Here we describe the effects of the GABA(A) receptor potentiating anesthetic etomidate on sensory processing, studied in a cerebellum-like structure, the electrosensory lateral line lobe (ELL) of mormyrid fish, in vitro. Previous studies have shown that the ELL integrates sensory input and removes...

Biochemical studies have shown that the non-barbiturate anesthetic etomidate can interact in a stereoselective, barbiturate-like fashion with the GABA/benzodiazepine receptor complex, enhancing both benzodiazepine and GABA binding, but its electrophysiological effects upon the mammalian CNS are largely unknown. The present investigations were designed to characterize the electrophysiological ef...

BACKGROUND Etomidate frequently induces myoclonus, so it may affect electromyographics (EMG). And EMG commonly has an effect on the bispectral index scale (BIS) and spectral entropy. This study was performed to compare the effect of etomidate on BIS, response entropy (RE) and state entropy (SE) during induction of anesthesia. METHODS Fifty patients (ASA I or II) scheduled for elective surgery...

Myoclonus induced by etomidate during induction of general anesthesia is undesirable. This study evaluated the effect of dexmedetomidine (DEX) pretreatment on the incidence and severity of etomidate-induced myoclonus. Ninety patients undergoing elective surgical procedures were randomly allocated to three groups (n=30 each) for intravenous administration of 10 mL isotonic saline (group I), 0.5 ...

Background: Propofol is the most popular induction agent for laryngeal mask airway (LMA) insertion in current anaesthesia practice however associated hypotension has been reported as its major disadvantage. Etomidate, which produces less hypotension, can be considered as an alternative agent for LMA insertion. Objectives: The objective of this study was to compare the hemodynamic effects of eto...

The cardiorespiratory effects of etomidate were measured in two groups of six patients with aortic or mitral valve disease. The induction of anaesthesia with etomidate 0.3 mg kg-1 was followed by a second dose 10 min later. After the first dose, a 19% decrease in systemic arterial pressure was associated with a decrease in systemic vascular resistance and left ventricular heart work. Cardiac in...

The effects of etomidate and thiopentone on intraocular pressure were studied in 50 patients of either sex undergoing routine non-ophthalmic surgery. Both drugs decreased intraocular pressure significantly. However, etomidate induced a significantly greater decrease in intraocular pressure than did thiopentone.

The aim of the present study is to compare the safety, efficacy and cost effectiveness of anesthetic regimens by compound, using etomidate and propofol in elderly patients undergoing gastroscopy. A total of 200 volunteers (65-79 years of age) scheduled for gastroscopy under anesthesia were randomly divided into the following groups: P, propofol (1.5-2.0 mg/kg); E, etomidate (0.15-0.2 mg/kg); P+...

BACKGROUND Propofol is associated with a high incidence of injection pain in children, even if given together with lidocaine. A new lipid formulation of etomidate (Etomidate-Lipuro) has been found in adults to cause very little discomfort during i.v. injection. The aim of the present prospective, double-blind, randomized trial was to compare the incidence of injection pain during i.v. induction...