Fluoropolymer-based emulsions for the intravenous delivery of sevoflurane

COLL 65

Jonathan P Fast, jpfast@wisc.edu, Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin, 1101 University Ave, Madison, WI 53706 and Sandro Mecozzi, smecozzi@wisc.edu, School of Pharmacy and Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin, 777 Highland Ave, Madison, WI 53705.
The intravenous delivery of halogenated volatile anesthetics has been previously attempted using phospholipid-stabilized emulsions, such as Intralipid. However, fluorinated volatile anesthetics like sevoflurane are partially fluorophilic and do not mix well with classic non-fluorinated lipids. This effect limits the maximum amount of sevoflurane that can be stably emulsified in Intralipid to a mere 3.5% v/v, a considerable limitation to potential clinical use. We were able to prepare a 25% v/v sevoflurane emulsion using novel fluorinated surfactants, a significant increase compared to Intralipid. These emulsions are stabilized against coalescence, but susceptible to moderate Ostwald ripening due to the water solubility of sevoflurane (6mM). We will present a complete physical characterization of the emulsions as well as results of in vivo studies.