Changes in breathing pattern during severe hypothermia and autoresuscitation from hypothermic respiratory arrest in anesthetized mice

Some evidence suggests that both hypothermia and anesthesia can exert similar effects on metabolism and ventilation. This study examined the synergistic effects of anesthesia and hypothermia on ventilation in spontaneously breathing adult mice under three different conditions, that is, (1) pentobarbital group (n = 7) in which mice were anesthetized with intraperitoneal pentobarbital of 80 mg/kg, (2) sevoflurane‐continued group (n = 7) in which mice were anesthetized with 1 MAC sevoflurane, and (3) sevoflurane‐discontinued group (n = 7) in which sevoflurane was discontinued at a body temperature below 22˚C. We cooled mice in each group until breathing ceased and followed this with artificial rewarming while measuring changes in respiratory variables and heart rate. We found that the body temperature at which respiration arrested is much lower in the sevoflurane‐discontinued group (13.8 ± 2.0˚C) than that in the sevoflurane‐continued group (16.7 ± 1.2˚C) and the pentobarbital group (17.0 ± 1.4˚C). Upon rewarming, all animals in all three groups spontaneously recovered from respiratory arrest. There was a considerable difference in breathing patterns between sevoflurane‐anesthetized mice and pentobarbital‐anesthetized mice during progressive hypothermia in terms of changes in tidal volume and respiratory frequency. The changes in the respiratory pattern during rewarming are nearly mirrored images of the changes observed during cooling in all three groups. These observations indicate that adult mice are capable of autoresuscitation from hypothermic respiratory arrest and that anesthesia and hypothermia exert synergistic effects on the occurrence of respiratory arrest while the type of anesthetic affects the breathing pattern that occurs during progressive hypothermia leading to respiratory arrest.