Although anesthetics have been used successfully for over 150 years, their mechanisms of action are little understood, a fact that significantly limits our ability to design new and safer agents. In Neural Mechanisms of Anesthesia, leading investigators critically evaluate the latest information on how anesthetics work at the molecular, cellular, organ, and whole animal level. These distinguished experts review anesthetic effects on memory, consciousness, and movement and spell out in detail both the anatomic structures and physiological processes that are their likely targets, as well as the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which they operate. They also discuss drugs that are not truly general anesthetics, but are frequently used in clinical practice and can affect the action of general anesthetics (e.g., local anesthetics, opiates, neuromuscular blocking drugs).
Comprehensive and authoritative, Neural Mechanisms of Anesthesia draws together and critically reviews all the recent research on anesthetic mechanisms, highlighting the precise routes along which these substances operate, and how this deeper understanding will lead to the design of effective drugs free of undesirable side effects.

Klappentext

Leading investigators critically evaluate the latest information on how anesthetics work at the molecular, cellular, organ, and whole animal level. These distinguished experts review anesthetic effects on memory, consciousness, and movement and spell out in detail both the anatomic structures and physiological processes that are their likely targets, as well as the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which they operate. Comprehensive and authoritative, Neural Mechanisms of Anesthesia draws together and critically reviews all the recent research on anesthetic mechanisms, highlighting the precise routes along which these substances operate, and how this deeper understanding will lead to the design of effective drugs free ofundesirable side effects.

Inhalt

I. Introduction The Development of Concepts of Mechanisms of Anesthesia Donald Caton and Joseph F. Antognini II. Anesthesia, Consciousness, and Memory Mechanisms of Consciousness with Emphasis on the Cerebral Cortical Component G. Bryan Young Anesthesia Meets Memory: Tools for Critical Appraisal Robert A. Veselis III. Sleep, Coma, and Anesthesia-Similarities and Differences Sleep and Anesthesia John Keifer Possible Relationships of Anesthetic Coma and Pathological Disorders of Consciousness Nicholas D. Schiff and Fred Plum IV. Neural Mechanisms Cerebral Cortex-Anesthetic Action on the Electroencephalogram: Cellular and Synaptic Mechanisms and Clinical Monitoring Heath Lukatch and Scott Greenwald Cerebral Mechanisms of Analgesia and Anesthesia in Humans Elucidated by In Vivo Brain Imaging Ferenc Gyulai and Leonard Firestone Thalamus Anthony Angel The Hippocampus M. Bruce MacIver Anesthetic Effects on the Reticular Formation, Brainstem and Central Nervous System Arousal Joseph F. Antognini and Earl Carstens Anesthesia, the Spinal Cord and Motor Responses to Noxious Stimulation Joseph F. Antognini and Earl Carstens Spinal Cord-Dorsal Horn J. G. Collins Spinal Cord: Anesthetic Actions on Motor Neurons Joan J. Kendig Simple Genetic Models for Anesthetic Action Philip G. Morgan and Margaret Sedensky Genetic Dissection of Anesthetic Action Gregg E. Homanics and Leonard L. Firestone V. Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms General Anesthetic Effects on GABAA Receptors Robert A. Pearce Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors and Anesthetics Stuart A. Forman, Pamela Flood, and Douglas Raines Actions of General Anesthetic on Voltage-Gated Ion Channels Norbert Topf, Esperanza Recio-Pinto, Thomas J. J. Blanck, and Hugh C. Hemmings, Jr Glutamate Receptors: Physiology and Anesthetic Pharmacology Misha Perouansky and Joseph F. Antognini General Anesthetic Effects on Glycine Receptors Stephen Daniels Presynaptic Actions of General Anesthetics Misha Perouansky and Hugh C. Hemmings, Jr The Meyer-Overton Relationship and Its Exceptions Warren S. Sandberg and Keith W. Miller Protein Models Jonas S. Johansson and Roderic G. Eckenhoff The Opioid Receptors Gary J. Brenner, Jianren Mao, and Carl Rosow Local Anesthetics Ging Kuo Wang Neuromuscular Blocking Agents and General Anesthesia Gerald A. Gronert and Timothy Tautz VI. Future Research The Future of Anesthetic Mechanisms Research Joseph F. Antognini, Douglas E. Raines, and Earl Carstens Index