Anesthesiology
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Comparative Study
Toxicity and resuscitation in lidocaine- or bupivacaine-infused cats.
Controversy persists surrounding the relative safety of bupivacaine compared with lidocaine especially with regard to its cardiovascular toxicity and the ability to resuscitate following such occurrences. The margin of safety between seizure onset and cardiovascular collapse was compared in lightly anesthetized and ventilated cats given an equipotent infusion of either lidocaine or bupivacaine (N = 10 for each group). The infusion rates were 4 mg X kg-1 X min-1 bupivacaine or 16 mg X kg-1 X min-1 lidocaine. ⋯ Despite very high plasma local anesthetic concentrations, all lidocaine-infused animals were quickly resuscitated (4.4 +/- 3.0 min; mean +/- SD). The resuscitation time for the bupivacaine group (5.4 +/- 2.4 min) was similar. Two cats in the bupivacaine group could not be brought to resuscitation criterion, a difference, however, that was not statistically significant.