Anticonvulsant actions of enflurane on epilepsy models in cats.

The effects of enflurane on three epilepsy models were studied in cats. The models used were seizures in amygdaloid kindled cats and those induced by bicuculline and penicillin. The authors found that not only a subconvulsive (1.5%) but a convulsive (3.5%) dose of enflurane suppressed the seizures in all models. There was no sign of activation by enflurane of the epileptic focal activities in the dose range studied: the penicillin-induced cortical seizure was suppressed completely, and the threshold dose of bicuculline required to induce seizure in normal cats and the threshold current required to induce seizure in amygdaloid-kindled cats were both increased by both the subconvulsive and convulsive dose of enflurane. The pattern of suppression was, however, dissimilar in each model. It was dose dependent in the case of penicillin-induced seizure, while it was biphasic in several aspects in the seizures of bicuculline-induced and amygdaloid kindled models. For the subconvulsive dose the degrees of increase in the thresholds required to induce seizure in bicuculline-induced and amygdaloid-kindled models were both greater than those for the convulsive dose of enflurane. In spite of such a definite suppression of the excitability of focus, the propagation of amygdaloid after-discharge was facilitated by the convulsive dose. The intensity of convulsion induced by suprathreshold dose of bicuculline was depressed in a dose-related manner. The intensity of the convulsion in the amygdaloid-kindled model was also suppressed when it was estimated by visual inspection of behavior and the degree of activation of the brain electrical activities. The authors conclude that there is little, if any, exacerbation by enflurane of preexisting epileptic foci, the only exception possibly being the case of certain myoclonic type epilepsies such as progressive myoclonic epilepsy and photosensitive epilepsy. This anesthetic probably can be used with a considerable degree of safety for epileptic patients.