Mutagenicity of volatile anesthetics: halothane.

The mutagenicity of halothane was tested in an in-vitro microbial assay system employing two histidine-dependent mutants of Salmonella typhimurium, TA98 and TA100, Halothane in concentrations ranging from 0.1 to 30 per cent was incubated with bacteria in the presence or absence of a metabolic activation system prepared from either rat liver treated with Aroclor 1254 or human liver. Trifluoroacetic acid, a major metabolite of halothane, and urine from patients anesthetized with halothane also were tested. Halothane, trifluoroacetic acid, and patients' urines were not mutagenic.