Liver enzyme studies with continuous intravenous anaesthesia.

A battery of liver function tests was carried out before operation and on the 3rd--5th and 13th--15th postoperative days in patients anaesthetised with continuous infusion of thiopentone, Althesin or etomidate for an intermediate operation. Some derangement of enzyme activity was found in one quarter to one third of the patients, and was most marked after Althesin. The findings are compared with published data on ketamine, which had an effect on enzyme activities similar to that of Althesin. On pooling data from different studies it became very apparent that large doses of intravenous anaesthetics cause a greater derangement of liver function than that which occurs using a balanced technique for the same operation.