[Etomidate: cardiovascular effects of a new intravenous anesthetic agent]

The cardiovascular effects of intravenous Etomidate (0.2 mg/kg) were studied in 14 surgical patients with ages varying from 49 to 90. The anaesthetic induction occurs within 10 seconds and the mean duration of anaesthesia is from 6 to 8 minutes. I.V. Etomidate causes a slight lowering of the mean arterial pressure (8.5 per cent), a negligible increase of the heart rate (2.8 per cent) and an insignificant lowering of the mean pulmonary artery pressure (7 per cent). Cardiac output and stroke volume are respectively lowered by 7.6 per cent and 10 per cent. The peripheral vascular resistance is discreetly reduced by 3.8 per cent. From these results, we believe that Etomidate seems to induce sleep with the lightest hemodynamic disturbances in comparison with other agents commonly used. However, some undesirable side effects appeared in some of our patients which can become somewhat annoying, for example myoclonic movements and pain at the point of injection.