Possible Interaction: Ethanol and Halothane

“The livers from rats fed ethanol which received halothane at low oxygen concentration showed multifocal or patchy necrosis primarily in the centrilobular regions with parenchymal lipid accumulation, whereas no such lesions were not observed in pair-fed controls.”

“These data suggest that halothane is hepatotoxic to liver of rats chronically pretreated with ethanol , especially under hypoxic condition.”

“ Alcohol also produces cross-tolerance to the anesthetic effects of halothane.”

“Specifically, acute administration of alcohol reduces anesthetic requirements more than it reduces the toxic concentrations of halothane.”

“The marked quantitative differences between the anesthetic, respiratory, and cardiac interactions between alcohol and halothane suggest that the extent of one interaction must not be used to predict the extent of another.”

“Therefore, whenever xenobiotics that are … chlorzoxazone, paracetamol (acetaminophen), halothane , enflurane, methoxyflurane, sevoflurane and many organic solvents (e.… by an individual who is also chronically consuming ethanol , the accelerated metabolism of these agents and their clinical impact (e.g. …) and toxicological impact (accumulation of active metabolites) have to be considered.”

“ Ethanol enhanced the UK 14,304-evoked potassium currents, whereas halothane inhibited the currents.”

“ Halothane (3-6 mM), diethylether (100 mM) and n-alkanols ( ethanol , butanol, pentanol and hexanol) increased resting Cai by 20 to 70%.”

“ Halothane and enflurane both caused dose dependent inhibition of ethanol metabolism (15-40%) in all hepatocytes without exogenous addition of pyruvate.”

“We conclude that the mechanism of action of ethanol and halothane differ in a significant way from each other.”

“If both adducts share a similar mechanism of cell activation, receiving halothane anesthesia while intoxicated with alcohol could exacerbate the inflammatory response and lead to cardiovascular injury.”