In a previous study we have provided evidence, that acute experimental hypercapnia due to hypoventilation in the rabbit alters blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier function in the brain (Pakulski et al. 1998). The purpose of this study therefore was to determine if lidocaine would prevent the observed alterations in the blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier function. The experiments were conducted in 16 adult Chinchilla rabbits submitted to acute hypercapnia due to mechanical hypoventilation (PaCO2 between 8 - 9.5 kPa over 180 minutes) under pentobarbital anaesthesia. The studied group (n = 8) was treated by lidocaine infusion 10 mg kg-1 h -1. After 180 minutes of hypercapnia the value of cerebrospinal fluid-blood index of gentamycin concentration, indicating the permeability of the blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier, was significantly lower in animals treated with lidocaine (4.03 2.32 vs. 19.05 5.49; P< 0.01). We conclude that lidocaine may attenuate the increase of blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier permeability under conditions of experimental acute hypercapnia lasting 180 minutes in the mechanically ventilated rabbit.
M. Naskret, Experimental Anaesthesia Department, Institute of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Therapy, and K. Marcinkowski Medical University, 14 sw. Marii Magdaleny St., 61-861 Poznan, Poland