THE EFFECT OF LIVER DAMAGE ON THE BLOOD LEVEL AND ACTION OF PARALDEHYDE

¹ From the John Sealy Memorial Research Laboratory and the Departments of Pharmacology and Pathological Chemistry, University of Texas Medical School, Galveston, Texas

1. The hypnotic effects and the blood paraldehyde curve obtained following the administration of a given dose of paraldehyde definitely prolonged in dogs with liver damage produced by 90 minutes of deep chloroform anesthesia two days previously.

2. Similar blood levels of paraldehyde were associated with substantially the same degrees of narcosis in normal dogs and in dogs with liver damage. Hence, chloroform anesthesia given two days previously probably does not increase the susceptibility of the central nervous system to paraldehyde.

3. On the basis of experimental results it is suggested that the existence of hepatic insufficiency may be a contraindication to the use of paraldehyde clinically.