Influences of Different Routinely Used Muscle Relaxants on Oxygen Delivery to and Oxygen Consumption by the Heart During Xenon-Anesthesia

To date there are no known studies in which the influence of routinely used muscle relaxants on the heart metabolism were studied, avoiding the cardiodepressive effects of halothane in combination with nitrous oxide or fentanyl (1,2,3). In earlier investigations we have shown Xenon to be an effective anesthetic gas with potent analgesic properties. Further on we could demonstrate that Xenon anesthesia has virtually no side-effects on cardiocirculatory parameters (4,5). Therefore it is possible to study the influence of different muscle relaxants on cardiac metabolism, without interaction with other anesthetics.