Lack of effect of spinal anesthesia on drug metabolism

The effect of spinal anesthesia on drug disposition was determined in six dogs with chronically implanted vascular catheters using propranolol as a model compound. On the first study day, 40 mg of unlabeled propranolol and 200 microCi of [3H]propranolol were injected into the portal and femoral veins respectively. Arterial blood samples were taken for 4 hr for measurement of plasma concentrations of labeled and unlabeled propranolol by high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) and of [3H]propranolol by liquid scintillation counting of the HPLC eluant corresponding to each propranolol peak. Twenty-four hr later, spinal anesthesia was induced with tetracaine (mean dose 20.7 +/- 0.6 mg) with low sacral to midthoracic levels and the propranolol infusions and sampling were then repeated. Spinal anesthesia had no significant effect on either the intrinsic clearance of propranolol (2.01 +/- 0.75 L/min before and 1.9 +/- 0.7 L/min during spinal anesthesia), or on mean hepatic plasma flow (2.01 +/- 0.5 L/min before and 1.93 +/- 0.5 L/min during spinal anesthesia). The systemic clearance and elimination half-life of propranolol were also unchanged by spinal anesthesia (0.9 +/- 0.23 L/min on the first day, 0.7 +/- 0.1 L/min during spinal anesthesia; and 101 +/- 21 min on the first day, 115 +/- 16 min during spinal anesthesia, respectively). The volume of distribution (Vd) of propranolol was similarly unaffected by spinal anesthesia.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)