Effects of nitrous oxide anesthesia on intraocular air volume

To study the effect of nitrous oxide on the rate of absorption of intraocular air one eye of each of 20 rabbits was injected with 4 ml of air following lensectomy and total vitrectomy. After 24 hours the eyes of the 10 rabbits anesthetized with N2O had absorbed 25% more of the air than the eyes of the 10 rabbits anesthetized without N2O. These results suggest that the use of nitrous oxide for general anesthesia when air must be injected into the eye may be inadvisable.