Introduction to the panel on catecholamines and their significance in anaesthesia

Abstract

For many years catecholamines and sympathomimetic drugs have been used to combat certain types of cardiac depression and hypotension. The development of very sensitive methods for the determination of catecholamine levels in urine, plasma and tissue now allows us to study the normal response of the body to different anaesthetics and to the challenges of surgical trauma. Many new drugs employed in the treatment of arterial hypertension profoundly affect the sympathetic nervous system by many mechanisms and we, therefore, meet in our hypertensive patients new and difficult problems during anaesthesia and postoperatively. In addition to all this, drugs like epinephrine have strong metabolic effects. Thus, there are many old and new reasons for a discussion of catecholamines in anaesthesia.