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Minerva Anestesiologica 2019 January;85(1):83-9

DOI: 10.23736/S0375-9393.18.12909-9

Copyright © 2018 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Xenon anesthesia and beyond: pros and cons

Zhaosheng JIN ¹, Ornella PIAZZA ², Daqing MA ¹, Giuliana SCARPATI ², Edoardo DE ROBERTIS ³ ✉

¹ Anesthetics, Pain Medicine, and Intensive Care, Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London, UK; ² Department of Medicine and Surgery, University of Salerno, Salerno, Italy; ³ Department of Neurosciences, Reproductive and Odontostomatological Sciences, Federico II University, Naples, Italy

Xenon is a colorless and odorless noble gas, licensed for human use as an anesthetic gas as well as a radiological marker. The MAC of this gas is about 63% but xenon anesthesia is associated with fast recovery of cognitive function and cardiovascular stability. Nevertheless, postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) incidence for xenon anesthesia is very high. It has been reported that Xenon has cytoprotective effects that may have therapeutic values in both CNS protection, and in organ graft preservation. Currently, there are few studies about the effect of xenon on ischemia reperfusion injury of transplantable organs and insufficient clinical data upon its effect on intracranial and cerebral perfusion pressure. We shortly review the pros and cons of xenon as an anesthetic agent.

KEY WORDS: Xenon - General anesthesia - Postoperative nausea and vomiting - Delirium