Spinal Anesthesia Increases Pulmonary Responsiveness to Methacholine in Guinea Pigs

Abstract

Regional anesthesia has been considered the best anesthetic approach in asthmatic patients, although there are reports of severe bronchospasm. We developed an experimental model of spinal anesthesia with lidocaine in guinea pigs and studied respiratory responsiveness to methacholine, a bronchoactive agonist. Spinal anesthesia resulted in an increase in respiratory responsiveness.