Abstract: AIM: To study the effectiveness of ura-pidil and nitroglycerine on controlling the cardiovascular responses to tracheal intubation/extubation in patients with essential hypertension.METHODS: 45 patients with essential hypertension undergoing general anesthesia were divided randomly into control (C, without depres-sor, n =15), urapidil (U, 0.5 mg·kg^-1, n =15), and nitroglycerine (N, 1 μg·kg^-1, n =15) groups.The SBP, DBP, MAP, HR and RPP were measured during intubation and extubation and at the induction of anesthe-sia and the end of operation respectively. RESULTS: The SBP, DBP, MAP, HR and RPP increased markedly (P <0.01) in group C, but SBP, DBP, and MAP re-mained stable in group U and group N;compared with group C, there were significant difference in the same pe-riods during tracheal intubaton/extubation respectively (P <0.01). The raising levels of HR, RPP in group U and groupN were lower significantly than those in group C (P <0.01). CONCLUSION: Urapidil and nitroglycerine can reduce the cardiovascular responses to tracheal intu-bation/extubation effectively, and be helpful in keeping the hemodynamic stability, especially in patients with es-sential hypertension.

Key words: urapidil, nitroglycerine, intubation, extubation, cardiovascular responses