Summary
Desflurane (dijluoromethyl-l
Key wordsDesjurane; cardiovascular effects.
Desflurane(difluoromethyl-l-fluoro-2,2,2-trifluoroethyl ether [I-6531) was introduced into clinical practice in the autumn of 1992. The cardiovascular actions of this anaesthetic, which is chemically similar to isoflurane (the sole difference is that the chlorine atom in isoflurane is replaced by a fluorine atom in desflurane), were well-summarised at that time by Warltier and Pagel [I]. More recently, Eger [2] reviewed the pharmacology of the new inhaled anaesthetics. The present review summarises the current state of knowledge of the cardiovascular effects of desflurane, with emphasis on investigations published in the past 2 years, and compares the effects of desflurane with those of isoflurane and, where possible, sevoflurane.
Experimental animalsThe initial investigations with desflurane in animals suggested that cardiovascular effects were similar to those of isoflurane [3-51. In chronically instrumented swine both anaesthetics produced a dose-related decrease in systemic vascular resistance and mean arterial blood pressure, an increased heart rate and maintained cardiac output at I minimum alveolar concentration (MAC), but produced dose-related decreases in cardiac output at higher concentrations. Pagel et al. [6] investigated the systemic and coronary haemodynamic actions of desflurane in chronically instrumented dogs, with intact or pharmacologically blocked autonomic nervous systems, and compared the effects with those produced by isoflurane, halothane and enflurane. With an intact autonomic system, desflurane appeared to maintain myocardial contractility (as assessed by peak left ventricular dP/dt and dP/dtso) better than did the other inhaled anaesthetics. When the autonomic system was blocked pharmacologically, this difference disappeared, suggesting that desflurane produced a lesser decrease of sympathetic tone than the other halogenated, inhaled anaesthetics. The same laboratory recently reported that sevoflurane is closer in this regard to isoflurane, enflurane and halothane than to desflurane [7]. Pagel et al. [6] also reported that both isoflurane and desflurane increased diastolic coronary blood flow velocity, suggesting that both anaesthetics may dilate the coronary arterial circulation. When heart rate was prevented from increasing during autonomic nervous system blockade, however, in contrast to isoflurane, desflurane