In recent years, new anesthetic drugs with potentially better pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties are under development with good progress. Some of the most promising drugs are reviewed in this article. Areas covered: A literature review was performed using Ovid and Medline as the search engine. Articles published from January 2000 to December 2016 were included for review. Efforts have been made to eliminate duplicated studies. Expert opinion: This is an up-to-date review on new and developing anesthesia drugs. It will give readers information on the pharmacology and clinical significance of these new drugs.
Keywords: New anesthesia drug; benzodiazepine; induction agent; local anesthetic; neuromuscular blocking agent; opioid; reversal agent.