Electroencephalographic Recovery, Hypnotic Emergence, and the Effects of Metabolite after Continuous Infusions of a Rapidly Metabolized Etomidate Analog in Rats

Background Methoxycarbonyl etomidate is an ultra-rapidly metabolized etomidate analog. It is metabolized to methoxycarbonyl etomidate carboxylic acid (MOC-ECA), which has a hypnotic potency that is 350-fold lower than that of methoxycarbonyl etomidate. We explored the relationships between methoxycarbonyl etomidate infusion duration, recovery time, metabolite concentrations in blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and methoxycarbonyl etomidate metabolism in brain tissue and CSF to test the hypothesis that rapid metabolism of methoxycarbonyl etomidate may lead to sufficient accumulation of MOC-ECA in the brain to produce a pharmacological effect.