Intralipid

Intralipid® is a brand name nutritional supplement. It is given intravenously to patients who are unable to get enough fat in their diet. It is an emulsion of fats. Some preparations of the anaesthetic drugs propofol and etomidate are supplied using Intralipid as a vehicle.

Weinberg et al have published data indicating Intralipid is effective in treating experimental models of severe cardiotoxicity secondary to intravenous overdose of local anaesthetic drugs such as bupivacaine (Picard & Meek 2006, Weinberg et al 1998, 2003 and 2004). Recent case reports have been published of the successful use of lipid emulsion in this way (Rosenblatt 2006, Litz 2006, Foxall 2007) to save patients who were unresponsive to the usual resuscitation methods. All patients recovered completely shortly after intravenous injections of lipid.

Intralipid is also widely used in optical experiments to simulate the scattering properties of biological tissues (Driver et al. 1989). Solutions of appropriate concentrations of intralipid can be prepared that closely mimic the response of human or animal tissue to light at wavelengths in the red and infrared ranges where tissue is highly scattering but has a rather low absorption coefficient.