Effects of Halothane Anaesthesia and Surgery on Adrenocortical Function in Man

Endocrine and metabolic responses to halothane and pentobarbitone anaesthesia in sheep

“…Indeed, such effects may themselves exacerbate a stress response (Gann and Lilly 1983). Unfortunately arterial blood pressure was not reported by Oyama et al (1968), Werder et al (1971 or Oyama and Takiguchi (1970) who reported increases in cortisol in response to halothane anaesthesia. Taylor and Silver (1990) and Taylor (1 998a,b) described some attempts to investigate the relationship between hypotension and the stress response in horses and in sheep.…”

Adrenocortical Function in the Horse

“…Acetyl promazine,thiopentone and halothanedid not themselves elicit an increase. The adrenocortical response to anaesthesia depends upon the nature of the anaesthetic ; many authors have shown that ether anaesthesia produces a response in man and other animals (Virtue, Helmreich & Gainza, 1957;Chowers, Einat & Feldman, 1969;Oyama, Shibata, Matsuki & Kudo, 1969) as does Nembutal (Moncloa, Péron & Dorfman, 1959;Nagle, Cammock, Nyhus & Harkins, 1965), whereas thiopentone and halothane produce no change in man (Oyama, Shibata, Matusmoto, Takiguchi & Kudo, 1968).…”

From the Journal archives: A harbinger of modern anesthesia

“…Surprisingly (at least to me), administration of larger doses of meperidine [336 (131) Fig. 1 Over the course of anesthesia with halothane and nitrous oxide, Oyama et al 2 found that plasma 17-hydroxycorticosteroids (17-OHCS) in patients increased with stimulation by induction of anesthesia with inhaled anesthetics but not with thiopental. They also found that ongoing surgery caused a greater increase in corticosteroids, indicating that anesthesia did not block the perception of or response to noxious stimulation mg] did not prevent the increase in corticosteroids associated with surgery, 8 nor did anesthesia with ketamine.…”

“…Investigators interested in anesthesia developed tools for defining anesthetic kinetics (what the body does to anesthetics) 1 and comparative pharmacodynamic effects (the relative effects of what anesthetics do to the body). In 1968, the Canadian Journal of Anaesthesia published an article by Tsutomu Oyama (1923Oyama ( -2008) et al entitled ''Effects of halothane anaesthesia and surgery on adrenocortical function in man'', 2 which is an exemplar presaging the expansion of pharmacodynamic studies. Before the 1960s, relatively little was known of the effects of anesthetics on the body, in this case, specifically the release of free corticosteroids, such as, 17-hydroxycorticosteroids (17-OHCS), especially in humans.…”