A Biochemical Effect of Ether on the Gut

Abstract

Summary

Ether acts to increase reduction processes in the gut of rats, and gives rise to significant changes in these processes if the anesthesia is repeated on successive days. Epinephrine HCl showed no such effect on fecal samples taken 24 hours after beginning treatment with 0.2 mg./kg. given subcutaneously at +hour intervals for 8 or 12 hours, but a single dose of 0.5 mg./kg. resulted in a marked increase of reduction in fecal samples taken from 10-24 hours later. Reduction processes in the rat gut after surgical anesthesia with ether for one hour reach a peak with the fecal sample taken 6 hours after induction of anesthesia, and show! some augmentation over those of untreated controls up to the. 18th hour after anesthesia. These definite and regular biochemical corollaries of the funlctional disturbance in ether anesthesia are not also found uniformly reflected in the urinary excretion of putrefactive bodies by surgical patients.