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Bactericidal Effects of Anesthetics

Brynte H. Johnson, AB^*, and Edmond I. Eger, II, MD

*Staff Research Associate. Department of Anesthesia, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California 94143 Professor and Vice Chairman for Research. Department of Anesthesia, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California 94143

Abstract

Inadvertent bacterial contamination of an anesthetic vaporizer poses a potential hazard if such bacteria are subsequently aerosolized and delivered to an anesthetic circuit. This remote hazard would be removed if the volatile anesthetic were itself bactericidal, or if any of the gases flowing through the vaporizer (e.g. nitrous oxide) were bactericidal. Accordingly, we have determined the survival characteristics both of several respiratory pathogens in enflurane and of the sturdiest of those pathogens in other anesthetics. The bacteria were selected for their relative frequency in postoperative patients.

Anesthesia & Analgesia® is published for the International Anesthesia Research Society® by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins with the assistance of Stanford University Libraries' HighWire Press®. Copyright 2006 by the International Anesthesia Research Society. Online ISSN: 1526-7598   Print ISSN: 0003-2999