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Updated: Jul 19, 2026

Assessing Changes in Volatile General Anesthetic Sensitivity of Mice after Local or Systemic Pharmacological Intervention
Published on: October 16, 2013
Etomidate revisited
1Institute of Anaesthesiology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany. ostwald@lrz.uni-muenchen.de
Abstract:
The major advantage of etomidate is its lack of cardiovascular side effects. In addition, etomidate is supposed to be neuroprotective. The side effects of etomidate include adrenal suppression and myocloni. A review of the recent literature on etomidate, its clinical use, its side effects and its mechanism of action was performed. Among others, major recent advances include a new drug preparation devoid of propylene glycol and its side effects, a new pretreatment technique that may reduce the incidence of myocloni, and the identification of its site of action in the central nervous system.
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