One of the unpleasant anesthetic problems has been the hepatotoxicity occasionally resulting from the administration of certain halogeneated anesthetic agents. it appears now almost certain that halothane administration may be followed by massive
liver
damage, although the incidence is very rare Enflurane also might be expected to produce hepatitis and, indeed, a few cases of mild hepatic damage associated with its use have been reported abroad.
Today we usually administer enflurane as an inhalation anesthetic to patients with reduced hepatic function or those of previous halothane anesthesia. So in order to study the effect of enflurane on the liver function tests, the author selected
random
cases of 64 adult patients who had lumbar disk operations or extremity operations at Hanyang University Hospital from March 1991 to November 1991. They were divided into 3 group according to level of preoperative liver function tests . the liver
function test were performed before surgery, on the 1st, and 6th postoperative days.
@ES The results were as follows:
@EN 1. Total protein and albumin in group 1 and 2 were significantly decreased (P<0.05), but they were always within normal range.
2. The value of alkaline phosphatase was decreased in group 1and 2, and increased in group 3, but it was within normal change and statistically not significantly.
3. Total bilirubin of all group were significantly increased up to about 73~78% at 1st postoperative day (P<0.05), but it has closed to the level of preoperative value at 6th postoperative day.
4. ALT was increased to about 4~26% in group 1, 40~44% in group 2, and decreased to about 7~13% in group 3 at the postoperative days.
5. AST was increased to about 1, 15-55% in group 2, and decreased to about 12~18% in group 3 at the postoperative days.
These results indicate that the changes of liver function tests were minimal and the values of liver function tests has usually returned to the preoperative level by about one week after enflurane anesthesia. Therefore, it was suggested that
influence
of enflurane on the liver is not significant and that we can administer enflurane to any patients, even to any troubled patients of liver function.
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