[Current developments in xenon research. Importance for anesthesia and intensive care medicine].

The noble gas xenon exerts favorable anesthetic properties along with remarkable hemodynamic stability in healthy patients undergoing elective surgery. It represents the nearly ideal anesthetic and provides safe and well controllable anesthesia although the exact mechanism by which xenon produces anesthesia remains to be elucidated. In addition xenon offers organ protective properties for vital organs including the brain, heart and kidneys which seem to be synergistic when used in combination with therapeutic hypothermia. As the high cost of xenon will probably preclude its wider use as a routine anesthetic, data from extensive tests in large numbers of high risk patients is needed to confirm its possible superiority in this setting.