[Current place of neuroleptics in cardiac surgery under extracorporeal circulation. Cardiovascular effects of different combinations].

We have been using narconeuroleptanalgesia for anesthesia in cardiac surgery under extra-corporeal circulation since 1969, and we have carried out about 3,500 anesthetics of this type on the 1st of October 1975. For all these anesthetics, the neuroleptic used was droperidol. The other components were: - in the case of the narcotic, penthiobarbital, then more recently Alfatesine; - in the case of the analgesic, either dextromoramide or phenoperidine or Fentanyl; in the case of the curare derivative, D, tubocurarine, and above all, pancuronium dibromide. The advantages of neuroleptanalgesia for such surgery seemed to us mainly: - greater cardio-vascular stability in patients with a heart lesion; - the possibility of better control of cardiac output, i.e. by fillingor by inotropic drugs, thanks to the relative vasoplegia produced by the neuroleptic. Finally, in a recent study, we attempted to determine the hemodynamic effect of droperidol and its association on various analgesic drugs measuring in a few patients the cardiac output, the peripheral resistances the the circulating blood volume. We will report the preliminary results of this study.