[SOLVED] Intravenous Anesthetics

Intravenous Anesthetics. The work is to be 7 pages with three to five sources, with in-text citations and a reference page. For an intravenous anesthetic to be considered ideal, it should have some properties. However, no agent meets the entire properties needed. An ideal intravenous anesthetic agent should have a rapid onset. This is attained by an agent that is largely unionized at pH of the blood pH and should be highly soluble in lipid. These properties allow penetration into the blood-brain barrier (Pandit, 2011).Secondly, the agent should depict a quick recovery. Early recovery of consciousness often results from rapid drug redistribution from the brain into other well-perfused tissues, principally muscles. The drug plasma concentration reduces, and the drug diffuses from the brain along a concentration gradient (Pandit, 2011). The eminence of the later recovery time is related more to the drug metabolism rate. Agents with slow metabolism are associated with a prolonged ‘hangover’ effect and build up if used in repeated doses.Thirdly, the ideal agents should depict analgesia at sub-anesthetic concentrations. It should have minimal cardiovascular as well as respiratory depression as an effect (Evers, Maze & Kharasch, 2011). Moreover, it should not side effects like emesis, pain on injection, the release of histamine, hypersensitivity reaction, and e.t.c. Like any other drug, IV anesthetic agents should not have toxic effects on other organs and should have a long shelf-life (Pandit, 2011).Following IV administration of a drug, there is an instant quick increase in plasma concentration then followed by a slower decline. Anesthesia is come by the diffusion of the drug from the arterial blood into the brain across the blood-brain barrier. The anesthetic effect, as well as the rate of transfer into the brain, is regulated by. blood flow to the brain, protein binding. extracellular pH and drug pK, the relative solubilities of the drug in water and lipid, and speed of injection (Evers, Maze & Kharasch, 2011).