[Inhibition and acceleration of the metabolism of enflurane and methoxyflurane in rats (author's transl)].

Rats exposed to enflurane (100 ppm) or methoxyflurane (300 ppm) in a closed all glass-system eliminated these anesthetics from the atmosphere of the system with a half-life of 6.84 h for enflurane and 0.64 h for methoxyflurane. 24 h-fasting had no influence on these elimination half-lives. An oral load of ethanol (4.8 g/kg p.o.) only prolonged the half-life for methoxyflurane. Pretreatment with diethyl maleate (1 ml/kg i.p.), dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO, 1 g/kg i.p.) or dithiocarb (100 mg/kg i.p.) prolonged the elimination half-life of both enflurane and methoxyflurane. An accelerated metabolic elimination was only observed in DDT-pretreated rats exposed to enflurane; other inducers of the microsomal mixed-function oxidase system like phenobarbital or rifampicine had no significant influence on the in vivo metabolism of both enflurane or methoxyflurane.