[Modern cardiac anesthesia]

Contemporary cardioanaesthesia is based on the use of opioid effects, whereby their dosage is steadily decreased. This calls for supplementation of anaesthesia by further pharmacological preparations which ensure adequate anaesthesia. Despite great efforts, neither, substances available at present nor their combinations are sufficient to suppress surgical stress completely. The authors attempt therefore selective influencing of the sympathetic nerve. In this respect preparations which stimulate sympathetic alpha2 receptors seem promising. The general trend of contemporary cardioanaesthesia is an effort to reduce the time spent by patients in the intensive care unit to a minimum. The motivation are in the first place economic reasons.