Ethanol reduces the minimum alveolar concentration of sevoflurane in rats

A high number of trauma patients are under the influence of alcohol. Since many of them need immediate surgical procedures, it is imperative to be aware of the interaction of alcohol with general anesthesia. To counter challenges that arise from clinical studies, we designed an animal experiment in which 48 adult Wistar rats either received 1 g · kg(−1) ethanol, 2 g · kg(−1) ethanol or placebo via intraperitoneal application. Subsequently, they were anesthetized with an individual concentration of sevoflurane. The minimum alveolar concentration (MAC) of the different groups was assessed using Dixon’s up-and-down design and isotonic regression methods. The bootstrap estimate of the MAC of sevoflurane in the placebo group was 2.24 vol% (95% CI 1.97–2.94 vol%). In the low dose ethanol group, the bootstrap estimate was 1.65 vol% (95% CI 1.40–1.98 vol%), and in the high dose ethanol group, it was 1.08 vol% (95% CI 0.73–1.42 vol%). We therefore report that intraperitoneal application of 1 g · kg(−1) or 2 g · kg(−1) ethanol both resulted in a significant reduction of the MAC of sevoflurane in adult Wistar rats: by 26.3% and 51.8% respectively as compared to placebo.