EFFECT OF RESPIRATORY ACIDOSIS AND ALKALOSIS ON CYCLOPROPANE-EPINEPHRINE INDUCED ARRHYTHMIAS IN THE DOG

¹ Division of Anesthesiology, University of Colorado Medical Center, Denver, Colorado

The incidemice of cyclopropane-epinephrine induced arrhythmias in twenty dogs has been ascertained during respiratory alkalosis, and again during respiratory acidosis. Similar observations were made using ten more dogs that were first in respiratory acidosis, and later when they were in alkalosis. Three of the thirty dogs went into ventricular fibrillation during alkalosis, and one fibrillated during acidosis. Ventricular arrhythmias were more numerous and significantly more prolonged during alkalosis.

A suggestion concerning the etiology of ventricular arrhythmias during carbon dioxide accumulation in human patients with cyclopropane anesthesia is presented.