[An anesthetic technic in dogs for studying the arrhythmogenic effects of acute coronary occlusion]

Intramuscular injection of levomepromazine (0.5 mg/kg) 30 min before intravenous injection of 10 mg/kg pentobarbital sodium induces a good surgical anaesthesia in dogs artificially ventilated with 50% N2O and 50% O2 and given 0.01 mg/kg atropine and 0.1 mg/kg pancuronium intravenously before left thoracotomy. This protocol is suitable for the study of the arrhythmogenic effects of acute one-stage coronary artery ligation in anaesthetized dogs. In fact, minor interference with the autonomic nervous system appears to be involved since heart rate is maintained slow and mean aortic pressure is kept within normal limits, as pH, PaO2, anc PaCO2 during subsequent periods. Acute circumflex coronary arterio-venous pedicle ligation close to the left main trunk division resulted in this model in a high incidence of ventricular fibrillation (10 out of 15 dogs) early (7 +/- 4 min) after occlusion. Specific interventions aimed at reducing the incidence of early post-ischemic life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias might be tested in this model.