High pressure and intravenous steroid anesthesia in rats

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Abstract
Anesthesia produced by the i.v. steroid agent, Althesin, was studied in Sprague-Dawley rats with and without high pressure of He gas up to 100 atm absolute (ATA). There were no cumulative or adaptive changes in Althesin requirement at normal pressures over 6 h periods. The apparent potency of the agent was reduced by 43% by the addition of 68 ATA helium. Subanesthetic doses of Althesin protected against the onset of convulsions and coarse tremors associated with the high pressure neurological syndrome. The steroid anesthetics may have a place in human diving technology and the mechanisms associated with the anesthetic-pressure interactions are consistent with the critical volume or lipid bilayer fluidity hypothesis.

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