Autonomic and cardiovascular effects of pentobarbital anesthesia during trigeminal stimulation in cats

Abstract

Anesthetized patients can experience potentially serious physiological responses to physical stimuli. For example, animal studies have revealed a ‘trigeminal depressor response’ (TDR), wherein stimulation of facial nerves under anesthesia triggers a marked decrease in blood pressure and heart rate. Since these studies have not considered the impact of depth of anesthesia, Hiroshi Hanamoto and colleagues at Japan’s Osaka University Graduate School of Dentistry examined the importance of this factor. They found that in lightly anesthetized cats, electrical stimulation of the lingual nerve actually led to increased heart rate and blood pressure; only under heavier anesthesia did such stimuli trigger TDR. This suggests that dental patients who faint during procedures could do so in response to pain, or fear of pain, rather than physiological changes induced by TDR, as was previously speculated.

Keywords

autonomic nervous system / blood pressure and heart rate variability / hemodynamics / trigeminal depressor response

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