Anesthetic action: The importance of the spinal cord to immobility

摘要

There are at least three desired end-points for general anesthesia, namely, (1) amnesia, (2) unconsciousness and (3) immobility. Some clinicians and investigators would also include analgesia and perhaps cardiovascular stability. Recent strides have led to our understanding of how anesthetics produce these clinical goals. For example, the spinal cord has emerged as a critical site where anesthetics act to prevent movement. In this issue of The Veterinary Journal, Dr. Jing Yang of the Laboratory of Anesthesia and Critical Care Medicine at the State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy of Cancer, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, and colleagues report additional data showing the importance of the spinal cord vis-?vis immobility (Yang et al., 2011). How should we view these data relative to what is already known?