[Use of lidocaine peridural anesthesia in patients in the acute phase of a myocardial infarct]

Peridural anesthesia was performed in 18 patients with acute myocardial infarction aimed at controlling the pain syndrome. In 12 of these patients, the authors studied for 24 hours the central hemodynamics by exploring the pulmonary artery with a Swan-Ganz balloon catheter and thermodilution. The central hemodynamics was also studied in the control group of patients in whom the analgesic methods conventially used in acute myocardial infarction were employed. During the first hour of peridural anesthesia in patients with myocardial infarction, the authors revealed a significant decrease in the blood pressure, heart rate, cardiac output, and in the end diastolic pressure in the pulmonary artery as compared with the initial values and the parameters in the control group. No significant changes in the cardiac stroke volume, stroke performance, the index of the cardiac stroke performance, and the total peripheral resistance were detected in these patients. The use of peridural anesthesia proved highly effective for controlling pain in acute myocardial infarction.