Anesthetic management and administration of atropine during angioplasty of stenosis of the internal carotid

Hippokratia 2003, 7(1):22-26

V Sdrani, D Karamanos, H Pezikoglou, A Fileli, K Papazoglou, A Kamparoudis, Th Gerasimidis
5th Surgical Dpt, Hippokratio General Hospital. Thessaloniki, Greece


Abstract

Twenty one patients were studied with an average age of 71.2 years who underwent angioplasty and stenting due to stenosis of the internal carotid. Aim of this study was to assess a) the administration of atropine for the management of bradycardia and b) the haemodynamic fluctuations of the patients. The latter were divided randomly into the control group and the group where atropine was administered preventively.
Our results showed that all patients presented significant bradycardia and hypotension, 21.4 % of patients of the control group presented serious bradycardia, while only the 11.5 % of the atropine group respectively (p < 0.05). Three patients (17.5 %) developed significant tachycardia immediately after preventive administration of atropine (p < 0.05).
Conclusively, the preventive administration of atropine during angioplasty of the internal carotid prevents the onset of dangerous bradycardia, but does not avoid the presence of undesired, for these patients, tachycardia.