Cardiovascular responses to epinephrine-containing local anesthetics for dental use: a comparison of hemodynamic responses to infiltration anesthesia and ergometer-stress testing.
OBJECTIVE
Cardiovascular effects of infiltration anesthesia have been documented in numerous studies. However, few studies have been carried out to compare the effects of infiltration anesthesia with the effects of exercise-stress testing. The purpose of this study was to examine this issue.


METHODS
Eight young and 13 older subjects were given infusions of epinephrine to produce cardiovascular responses comparable with those found in subjects undergoing infiltration anesthesia with 3.6 mL of lidocaine with 1:80,000 epinephrine (L-E). Cardiovascular responses to this drug treatment were evaluated with echocardiography and compared with those produced by ergometer exercise.


RESULTS
The hemodynamic effects of L-E infiltration anesthesia were less than those produced by ergometer-stress testing at 25 watts (W) in young subjects and at 15 W in the older subjects. The workload of this ergometer-stress testing was about 4 metabolic equivalents (METS), which is approximately equivalent to the workload of walking 4.8 km/hr, doing light yard work (ie, raking leaves, weeding, or pushing a power mower), painting, or doing light carpentry.


CONCLUSIONS
With the exception of some specific pathologic conditions, such as serious arrhythmia, infiltration anesthesia with 3.6 mL of L-E can be carried out safely on the patients who have exercise capacity of more than 4 METS.
Department of Dental Anesthesiology, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan.
H
H
Niwa
Y
Y
Satoh
H
H
Matsuura
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000766:Anesthesia, Dental; D000772:Anesthesia, Local; D000779:Anesthetics, Local / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000187:drug effects; D002302:Cardiac Output / Q000187:drug effects; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D004452:Echocardiography; D004837:Epinephrine / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000097:blood / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005080:Exercise Test; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000187:drug effects; D006439:Hemodynamics / Q000187:drug effects*; D006801:Humans; D008012:Lidocaine / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D012044:Regression Analysis; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013318:Stroke Volume / Q000187:drug effects; D016277:Ventricular Function, Left / Q000187:drug effects
D000779:Anesthetics, Local; D008012:Lidocaine; D004837:Epinephrine