Inhalation sedation utilizing nitrous oxide-oxygen has been a primary technique in the management of dental fears and anxieties for more than 150 years and remains so today. Though other, more potent, anesthetics have been introduced, nitrous oxide is still the most used gaseous anesthetic in the world. Administered properly with well-maintained equipment, the nitrous oxide-oxygen technique has...

This study was designed to examine the effects of continuous exposure to low levels of nitrous oxide on several behavioral paradigms and the occipital cortex cells of mice. Different groups of mice were exposed to air or two different levels of nitrous oxide (1000 ppm or 2000 ppm) 8 hr/day for eight consecutive days. The exposure to nitrous oxide was achieved by placing animals in a specially d...

BACKGROUND Recent studies have questioned our previous understanding on the effect of nitrous oxide on muscle relaxants, since nitrous oxide has been shown to potentiate the action of bolus doses of mivacurium, rocuronium and vecuronium. This study was aimed to investigate the possible effect of nitrous oxide on the infusion requirements of cisatracurium. METHODS 70 ASA physical status I-III ...

The case report byHirvioja et al. raises some interesting points [1]. Unfortunately, the title is somewhat misleading because it suggests that it was nitrous oxide alone that caused the death and ignores the likelihood, from the data presented, that the death was probably due to the other substances found in the patient’s blood aswell as the nitrous oxide [1]. As far as I am aware, there is no ...

The kinetics of denitrification and the causes of nitrite and nitrous oxide accumulation were examined in resting cell suspensions of three denitrifiers. An Alcaligenes species and a Pseudomonas fluorescens isolate characteristically accumulated nitrite when reducing nitrate; a Flavobacterium isolate did not. Nitrate did not inhibit nitrite reduction in cultures grown with tungstate to prevent ...

In Reply:—Drs. Parker and Behringer correctly point out that in our review on the potential toxic effects of nitrous oxide we did not cover its contribution to the greenhouse effect; this omission was predicated by considerations of space, direct relevance to patient care, and a lack of relevant data that is less than 20 yr old. Correctly, Drs. Parker and Behringer indicate that nitrous oxide c...

BACKGROUND A number of authors have reported that anaesthetics suppress myogenic motor evoked potentials (MEPs). However, the influence of hypothermia on these effects is unknown. Therefore we investigated the effects of hypothermia on nitrous oxide-induced suppression of myogenic MEPs. METHODS Twenty-two rabbits anaesthetized with ketamine, fentanyl and propofol were randomly allocated to on...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW To evaluate evidence and present an objective view on the effect of nitrous oxide on bowel function. RECENT FINDINGS We determined in a metaanalysis that the chance of having intraoperative bowel distension was increased about two fold in patients receiving nitrous oxide as the anaesthetic carrier gas compared with those receiving nitrogen or oxygen. In a separate logistic r...

Monitoring of nitrous oxide concentrations in operating rooms disclosed some leaks that had hitherto been unrecognized. Because nitrous oxide concentrations reported before 1967 had been obtained for the most part with high flows of the gas and without information concerning room air exchange, measurements were made of nitrous oxide levels during operations with an infra-red analyzer. after cor...

BACKGROUND Suppression of nociceptive signalling in the thalamus is considered to contribute significantly to the anaesthetic state. Assuming additivity of anaesthetic mixtures, our study assessed the effects of corresponding minimum alveolar concentrations (MACs) of isoflurane and isoflurane/nitrous oxide on thalamic nociceptive signalling. METHODS Nociceptive response activity (elicited by ...