Abstract
THE first demonstration of pressure reversal of anaesthesia in amphibians was provided by the tadpole experiments of Johnson and Flagler1 with ethanol and ethyl carbamate. Since then the phenomenon has been studied using general anaesthetics in newts, mice and marine organisms2,3, but few of these agents have been studied in detail and the results in some cases, for example, for barbiturates4,5, are conflicting. Another aspect of the interaction of pressure and anaesthesia is the amelioration of the high pressure nervous syndrome by nitrous oxide, hydrogen or nitrogen6–8. It is not, however, known if other agents can also give ‘pressure protection’, and tadpoles provide a relatively easy model for a preliminary screening of potentially suitable drugs. We have studied both these aspects of the interaction between pressure and narcosis using intravenous, local and inhalational general anaesthetics and tranquillisers. We show that pressure reversal occurred with all our agents producing narcosis in tadpoles, whereas pressure protection does not seem to be as universal.
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References
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Molecular Mechanisms in General Anaesthesia (edit. by Halsey, M. J., Millar, R. A., and Sutton, J. A.), 47 (Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh, 1974).
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HALSEY, M., WARDLEY-SMITH, B. Pressure reversal of narcosis produced by anaesthetics, narcotics and tranquillisers. Nature 257, 811–813 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1038/257811a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/257811a0
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