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British Journal of Anaesthesia, 2003, Vol. 91, No. 2 167-169
© 2003 The Board of Management and Trustees of the British Journal of Anaesthesia

Uses of MAC

David White1

1 Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, UK

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

MAC was first defined in 1963 by Eger and Merkel,1 in an animal study comparing two agents. In 1964,2 this was extended to halothane anaesthesia in human subjects. Finally, in 1965,3 MAC was described as a measure of anaesthetic potency for a number of agents in man. It is defined as the minimum alveolar concentration of anaesthetic at 1 atmosphere (atm), which produces immobility in 50% of subjects exposed to a noxious stimulus, usually a skin incision. Note that concentration is specified; this means that for precision the atmospheric pressure should be quoted when giving a MAC value. If the pressure departs significantly from 1 atm, then this is essential. The difficulty is avoided by expressing MAC as a partial pressure (MAP).

The alveolar concentration of the agent is assumed to be in equilibrium with that in the brain. For this to be a valid assumption, sufficient time must be . . . [Full Text of this Article]


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J. G. C. Lerou
Nomogram to estimate age-related MAC
Br. J. Anaesth., August 1, 2004; 93(2): 288 - 291.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]