[Influence of sevoflurane on renal medullary blood flow in humans]

Proper anesthetic management is necessary to preserve renal function during anesthesia and surgery. Using ultra-sound color Doppler, we examined the influence of sevoflurane on renal medullary blood flow in 20 adult patients without renal dysfunction. After identifying an interlobar artery in the outer medulla, we measured the velocity of the arterial blood flow before induction of anesthesia, and during sevoflurane anesthesia (1 MAC, 1.5 MAC). The minimum velocity of the interlobar arterial blood flow (Vmin) during wakefulness correlated significantly with creatinine clearance measured preoperatively. We did not find any significant change in Vmin after induction of sevoflurane anesthesia, despite significant decreases in mean arterial blood pressure.