Experimental study of efficacy and optimal dose of intraoperative glucose in rabbits under general anesthesia.

This experimental study was designed to investigate the efficacy of glucose loading during surgery. Rabbits, fasted overnight, received 20 ml·kg-1·h-1 fluid infusion containing glucose at various concentration (0,0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0% w/v) for 3 h intraoperatively. Plasma glucose level increased after the beginning of operation, but the increase was slight in groups given 0.2 g·kg-1·h-1 or lower doses of glucose. Glucose at higher doses caused marked hyperglycemia. These higher doses also promoted urinary glucose excretion, and in the group given the maximum glucose dose (0.4 g·kg-1·h-1), this parameter was significantly elevated compared with findings in the 0.2 g·kg-1·h-1 group (P<0.05), whereas it showed no significant difference among groups given 0-0.2g·kg-1·h-1. The liver glycogen content in animals that received no glucose was significantly lower than that of the 0.2 g·kg-1·h-1 group (P <0.01). However, there was no correlation between glycogen level and glucose dose among groups receiving glucose. These results suggest that intraoperative glucose supplementation is effective in preventing glycogen depletion, and indicate that, to avoid glucose overloading, the optimal dose is 0.1-0.2 g·kg-1·h-1.