New advances in anesthesia

Pharmacologic advances in anesthesia over the last decade have focused on drug safety, shorter durations of action, reversibility, and ease of administration. This is reflective of major changes in the focus of patient care from inpatient to outpatient settings as well as from available risk management data that support the investigation of these new drugs. The pharmacologic advances discussed included those drugs in current practice as well as experimental drugs yet to be released for general clinical use. Inhaled agents, such as isoflurane and perhaps the experimental agent, desflurane, will maintain or achieve their popularity because of the relative ease of administration and wide margins of safety. Propofol, the most recent intravenous anesthetic available for clinical use, has already gained wide acceptance because of its dual function as an induction and maintenance agent and its appropriateness for use in the ambulatory surgical population. The role of midazolam in anesthesia practice has increased to such an extent that it has largely supplanted the use of diazepam (Valium). The introduction of the antagonist, flumazenil, will undoubtedly enhance the safety and efficacy of midazolam as well as broaden its applicability of use across various patient populations. Several of the newer synthetic narcotics, such as alfentanil and sufentanil, have replaced other narcotics formerly used in anesthesia practice, such as meperidine and morphine, primarily because of their short action and lack of significant side effects. The use of muscle relaxants as a critical component of anesthetic management has led to the development of a number of new drugs in this classification. Pharmacologic management of patients under anesthesia will at some future date likely include the administration of alpha 2 agonists. Administration of these drugs can reduce anesthetic requirements of traditional agents by as much as 50%. As research continues, new drugs will be incorporated into the practice of anesthesia, ones that will promote rapid uptake, low toxicity, intense analgesia, easy reversibility, shorter durations, and fewer side effects. One measure of success relative to pharmacologic development in anesthesia is the recent and dramatic decreases in patient morbidity and mortality figures over the last decade. This attests to the rapid growth and development of not only improved patient monitoring systems but also newly improved "agents of sleep."