The influence of ketamine and other intravenous anaesthetic agents on cerebral blood flow in the sheep

Cerebral blood flow (CBF) was measured in sheep by measuring clearance of directly injected ¹³³ Xenon from the cerebral cortex. The influence of ketamine at various dose levels on the CBF was measured and compared to the effects produced by pentobarbitone and CT1341. It was found that ketamine caused an initial depression of CBF followed by a rise, pentobarbitone produced a profound long lasting depression whilst CT1341 caused an initial depression which was rapidly followed by a return to control values.