The clinical use of desflurane

Desflurane, a newly introduced potent, inhaled anesthetic, differs from its predecessors in having a lower solubility in blood and tissues. The lower solubility imparts a greater control to the maintenance of anesthesia and a more rapid elimination and recovery from anesthesia. In other respects, the pharmacological properties of desflurane resemble those of its sister anesthetic, isoflurane, currently the most widely-used potent anesthetic in this and other countries. The qualitative exceptions to this resemblence are that desflurane is more pungent and produces a greater increase in heart rate, particularly at deeper levels of anesthesia.