Postoperative hypoxemia after nonabdominal surgery: a frequent event not caused by nitrous oxide.

We tested whether anesthesia that includes nitrous oxide (N2O) results in the development of intraoperative and postoperative pulmonary complications, including hypoxemia. We also tested whether aging contributes to the development of such complications, particularly when anesthesia includes N2O. We randomly allocated patients having total hip replacements, carotid endarterectomies, or transsphenoidal hypophysectomies (total n = 270) to an anesthetic regimen with and without N2O (stratified within surgical group).

No finding of increased myocardial ischemia during or after carotid endarterectomy under anesthesia with nitrous oxide.

Nitrous oxide (N2O) has been implicated as a cause of myocardial ischemia. We investigated whether substitution of N2O for a portion of the anesthesia supplied by isoflurane increased myocardial ischemia in patients at risk for such ischemia. Seventy patients having carotid endarterectomies (63 patients) or other carotid surgery (seven patients) were prospectively, randomly assigned to an anesthetic regimen that included or excluded N2O.

Differing effects of norcholate and cholate on bile flow and biliary lipid secretion in the rat.

The effects of norcholate (a C23 bile acid that differs from cholate in having a side chain containing four rather than five carbon atoms) on bile flow and biliary lipid secretion were compared with those of cholate, using the anesthetized rat with a bile fistula. Norcholate and cholate were infused intravenously over the range of 0.6-6.