Abstract
1. The literature on the effect of amytal anesthesia on carbohydrate metabolism is reviewed.
2. Iso-amyl-ethyl barbituric acid (amytal) is an efficient anesthetic for cats in doses between 0.070 and 0.120 gram (optimum dose, 0.100 gram) per kilogram of body weight. Recovery from such doses is the rule.
3. Amytal anesthesia does not raise the glucose concentration of the blood of cats either during the induction stage, or for four or five hours after anesthesia is complete. It does not prevent the appearance of hyperglucemia from sensory stimulation, nor does it interfere with the blood-sugar reducing powers of insulin.
The author is indebted to Professor C. C. Lieb for suggestions and criticisms during the writing of this report and to Eli Lilly and Company for the amytal used in these experiments.
During and since the writing of this report we have given amytal intraperitoneally to 33 healthy cats. Each of three animals received 0.2, 0.11, and 0.05 gram per kilogram of body weight respectively. All the others were injected with from 0.06 to 0.10 gram per kilogram of weight. Anesthesia was complete in from five minutes (2 cases) to one-half hour (1 case), the average being eleven minutes. The symptoms are like those after subcutaneous injection, but come on in one to two minutes, instead of one to two hours. Complete surgical anesthesia is thus obtained.
The best results follow the administration of 0.07 gram per kilogram of weight, if the animal is to survive. In one animal 0.08 gram per kilogram of weight gave sufficient narcosis for the performance of the trying operation of successful section of the ciliary postganglionic fibers.
Eighteen of these animals were thus used in the investigation of hemorrhage hyperglucemia, recently reported by the author (Amer. Jour. Physiol., 1928, lxxxvi, 70).
Footnotes
- Received June 28, 1928.
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