Anesthetic effects on fictive locomotion in the rat isolated spinal cord.

General anesthetic mechanisms are poorly understood. Anesthetic immobilizing effects occur in the spinal ventral horn. However, a detailed analysis of anesthetic effects on ventral motor networks is lacking.

Brainstem regions affecting minimum alveolar concentration and movement pattern during isoflurane anesthesia.

Background: Spinal transection or selective delivery of volatile anesthetics to the spinal cord reduces minimum alveolar concentration (MAC), whereas precollicular decerebration does not. The authors sought to determine which brainstem regions influence anesthetic requirements and movement responses with isoflurane.

Methods: Movement (biceps femoris electromyogram) and MAC were measured in adult rats before and after decerebration at the precollicular, mid-collicular, pontine or medullary level, or decerebellation.