Biological & pharmaceutical bulletin
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Clinical Trial
Pharmacokinetics of propofol in elderly coronary artery bypass graft patients under total intravenous anesthesia.
The present paper investigates the pharmacokinetics of propofol in the plasma of two elderly patients operated on under total intravenous anesthesia using propofol. A 78-year-old (patient A) and a 76-year-old (patient B), both Japanese men with unstable angina pectoris, were operated on for coronary artery bypass grafts. For the induction of anesthesia, 1.5 mg/kg propofol was administered as a single bolus infusion, and anesthesia was maintained using the step-down infusion regimens of propofol. ⋯ The apparent distribution volumes of patients A and B were 1.43 and 1.62 l/kg, respectively. The half-lives of propofol in the plasma of patients A and B were estimated to be 13.3 and 17.4 min as the a phase, and 10.1 and 10.5 h as the beta phase, respectively. In elderly patients with cardiac surgery, the maintenance concentrations of propofol in the plasma were enough to maintain a concentration of 1.0 microg/ml, and the half-life may be longer than previously reported values in adult patients.