Recent Advances in Pulmonary Hypertension Therapy

Cardiovascular anesthesiologists have traditionally resorted to using intravenous therapy in the operating room to manipulate hemodynamics and the determinants of cardiac output and systemic vascular resistance during cardiac surgery. General anesthesia involves the administration of both intravenous and inhaled drug therapy to achieve the desired goals, i.e. analgesia, amnesia, muscle relaxation and blockade of autonomic activity. Anesthesiologists are the experts in the use and titration of drugs that are administered through the inhaled route. However, this method of drug delivery presents many challenges, notably timing, dosage accuracy, rapid titratability and consistency of drug delivery. Arguably the most rapid method of treating acute reactive pulmonary vasculature would be by drugs that directly act upon the pulmonary endothelium. In the operating room, pulmonary hypertension and right ventricular failure are high predictors of morbidity and mortality and present significant challenges to the anesthesiologist. In this article, we will focus on advances in inhaled therapy of these conditions, including concerned recent patents. This review will focus on some of the advances in the pharmacology of inhaled drugs that are being used to treat pulmonary hypertension, right and left ventricular failure in the perioperative setting.