Influence of anesthesia on the localization of Schistosoma mansoni. Intestinal schistosomiasis in white mice

General anesthetics or hypnotics (ketamine, propanidid, thiopental, althesin, halothane, enflurane, ether), were tested on white mice infested with Schistosoma mansoni to study possible changes in the migration of this trematode from the mesentery to the liver. With this in mind, populations of 25 mice of the same sex and age were chosen at random; they were divided into a control group and a group submitted to an anaesthetic agent. The mice were perfused after dissection and catheterization of the abdominal aorta. A vacuum-pump was used to collect separately the parasites from the mesenteric and portal vessels and those from hepatic vessels. The parasite counts in the hepatic vessels of the mice which had received an anesthetic were compared with those found in the vessels of the control group; they were found to be significantly raised. It would appear that anesthetic agents altered the neuromuscular function of the parasite which was thus carried away towards the liver. This massive migration of the parasites would deprive the hepatic lobules of portal blood by worsening the already existing obstruction at the precapillary level caused by the schistosomiasis.