In the study, researchers used ENO during laparoscopy on pigs. Researchers did not perform surgery on the pigs, but created a laparoscopy situation by inflating the belly with carbon dioxide gas mixed with ENO, according to the release. Changes in heart rate, arterial pressure, cardiac output, organ blood flow and certain chemical parameters like creatinine, a measure of kidney function, and cortisol, a stress-related hormone were monitored.
“We didn’t see any downside to using ethyl nitrite during this study of minimally invasive surgery,” senior author James D. Reynolds, PhD, an associate professor of anesthesiology and member of the Duke Endosurgery Center, said in the release. “ENO has previously been administered to humans with no observed adverse effects, so it should be relatively easy to move this idea into a surgical clinical trial.”
The study was published in the December issue of the journal CTS: Clinical and Translational Science.
Read the release about ENO in laparoscopic surgery.
