Pentobarbital sodium anesthesia in the dog

¹ Department of Physiology, Naval Medical Field Research Laboratory, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina

Studies have been done in the dog to determine some of the circulatory effects of anesthetic amounts of pentobarbital sodium. The results indicate that a) except for the initial transient hypotension that occurs on injection of the anesthetic, pentobarbital sodium has little influence on the mean arterial blood pressure of the normotensive dog; b) cardiac output is unchanged 1 hr following anesthesia, then decreases approximately 25% and remains at this level from the 2nd to at least the 4th hr of anesthesia; c) estimated hepatic blood flow is not modified by pentobarbital sodium but the splanchnic A-V oxygen difference decreases; d) pentobarbital sodium does not modify arterial oxygen saturation, plasma volume, or red cell mass; e) the apparent hemodilution of the pentobarbitalized dog appears to result from the splenic sequestration of erythrocytes; f) the leukopenia which occurs in the dog under pentobarbital sodium also occurs in the splenectomized dog and appears to result, at least in part, from the pooling of leukocytes in the pulmonary bed; and g) the splenic blood of the normal unanesthetized dog does not appear to have a cell-to-plasma ratio different from that of the peripheral blood.

Key Words: pentobarbital sodium on circulation • pentobarbital sodium in splenectomized dog • pentobarbital sodium on leukocyte count • pentobarbital sodium and hemodilution

Submitted on October 27, 1964

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