ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) models and other PK/PD models applied to neuromuscular blocking agents (NMB), opioids, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, inhalational anesthetics, and miscellaneous anesthetic agents. Anesthetic agents have played a central role in the development of PK/PD models because of the ease in obtaining accurate and precise measures of the pharmacologic effect. Anesthetic agents, particularly NMB, have played an integral role in the development of PK/PD models. Noxious stimuli produce profound somatic and hemodynamic effects in the absence of adequate anesthesia. The interaction between opioids and inhaled anesthetics has been well documented. Somatosensory evoked potentials have also been used to quantify the anesthetic effect of thiopental in surgical patients. Benzodiazepines, like opioids, have multiple clinical effects which have utility in the anesthetic practice. PK/PD relationships have been defined for a variety of miscellaneous anesthetic agents, including propofol, etomidate, ketamine, and edrophonium.
