Calcium and Anesthesia

Abstract

Calcimn as an ion IS related to many important physiological functions inside the body. Of particular relevance to the anesthetist are the effects of calcium on the skeletal muscle contraction, myocardium, vascular smooth muscles, synaptic transmission and blood coagulation. Calcimn explains many of the physiological processes involved during the conduct of anesthesia. There is a great interaction between calcium and the drugs used in anesthesia and analgesia. Most of the anesthetic agents, especially the neuromuscular blocking agents, need calcimn to be within the normal level during anesthesia to function properly. Anesthetic agents, opioids and local anesthetics exert most of their functions through their effect on • voltage dependent calcium channels. So, pre and intraoperative assessment of calcium level is very important in the anesthetic management. Throughout anesthesia, special situations can occur m which. calcimn plays an important role. Theses situations include ischemia reperfusion injury, Cardiopulmonary bypass, acid-base balance, massive blood transfusion and malignant hyperthermia. These situations necessitate the anesthetist to be concerned with the calcium level inside the body. Since calcium is greatly involved in the action of most of the

anesthetic agents, and is related to many serious situations during anesthesia.