Protecting Action of Procaine Against Ventricular Fibrillation Induced by Epinephrine During Cyclopropane Anesthesia

Conclusions The experiments presented support the contention that when procaine is administered to cyclopropanized dogs the incidence of ventricular fibrillation following epinephrine administration is reduced. Sixty percent of the animals developed ventricular fibrillation after injection of one test dose of epinephrine. When procaine was previously administered all animals were protected, and the introduction of 8 test doses of epinephrine were required to produce the fatal complication. The results also indicate that procaine may be efficient in the treatment of ventricular fibrillation induced in the dog by epinephrine during cyclopropane anesthesia. In every instance in which procaine was given intravenously at the time when ventricular tachycardia occurred following the administration of epinephrine, recovery was effected.