title: Lidocaine and pentylenetetrazol seizure thresholds in cats are not reduced after enflurane anesthesia.
abstract: Some previous reports indicate that the excitability of the brain may be increased for days following enflurane anesthesia. The authors investigated this possibility in cats by determining whether or not pentylenetetrazol- (Metrazol) or lidocaine-seizure thresholds decreased after repeated enflurane exposure. The lidocaine-seizure threshold was bracketed in 4 cats, and the pentylenetetrazol-seizure threshold was bracketed in another 4 cats. Each cat was then exposed to 4 per cent enflurane for 2 hours on 4 successive days. Twenty-four hours after the last enflurane exposure, the cats were injected with the previously determined subthreshold dose of pentylenetetrazol (6.4 mg/kg, on the average) or lidocaine (7.8 mg/kg, on the average). No cat convulsed. It was therefore concluded that under our experimental conditions, repeated enflurane exposure does not increase the sensitivity to drugs which nonselectively excite the central nervous system (e.g., pentylenetetrazol) or to drugs which mimic temporal lobe epilepsy (e.g., lidocaine). This finding cast doubt that brain excitability is increased in the post-enflurane anesthetic period.
mesh_terms: D000758:Anesthesia; D000818:Animals; D001927:Brain Diseases / Q000139:chemically induced; D002415:Cats; D004737:Enflurane / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005260:Female; D008012:Lidocaine / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors*; D008297:Male; D010433:Pentylenetetrazole / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors*; D012640:Seizures / Q000139:chemically induced
chemical_list: D004737:Enflurane; D008012:Lidocaine; D010433:Pentylenetetrazole