OBJECTIVES: To investigate the effect of general anesthesia on aortic compliance and other cardiovascular hemodynamics in chronically instrumented pigs with compliant and noncompliant (stiff) aortas.DESIGN: Experimental study.SETTING: University animal laboratory.PARTICIPANTS: Twelve adult Yucatan miniature pigs.INTERVENTIONS: Chronic instrumentation of a compliant (control; n = 7) and noncompliant (n = 5) group to measure pressure and flow in the ascending aorta. A Teflon prosthesis was wrapped around the aorta (noncompliant group) to limit wall compliance.MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Hemodynamic parameters were recorded on the 15th postoperative day, both awake and after general anesthesia. Banding the aorta caused a significant decrease in arterial compliance (-49%, p<0.001) and increases in systolic blood pressure (SBP: +38%, p = 0.001) and pulse pressure (+107%, p< 0.01). Induction of anesthesia in the control group produced a 15% increase in arterial compliance (p<0.05), resulting in a subtle decrease in SBP (-12%), diastolic blood pressure (DBP; -13%) and mean blood pressure (MBP; -12%). Induction of anesthesia in the noncompliant group also caused a significant increase in arterial compliance (17%, p<0.001), but caused significant decreases in SBP (21%, p<0.01), DBP (23%, p<0.01) and MBP (22%, p<0.01) as compared with controls.CONCLUSIONS: Induction of general anesthesia caused a similar increase in total arterial compliance and was associated with a decrease in SBP that was more pronounced in animals with noncompliant aortas. These results indicated that anesthesia caused a greater hemodynamic effect on noncompliant (stiff) aortas and may explain the extensive hemodynamic fluctuation and instability often observed in atherosclerotic, elderly patients with stiff aortas.