Ether has a high MAC, is a weak agent, while trichloroethylene has a very low MAC, is potent and produces its effects at a fraction of the concentration of that needed for ether. Once again, halothane has the ideal MAC, somewhere in between. If the agent is being used alone with spontaneous breathing in a fit patient, you will need to set your vaporiser to at least three times the MAC to keep the average patient settled during surgery. Although we say that ether is weak, it is difficult to believe this statement if you see a patient totally unrousable after ether anaesthesia, a common occurrence. Ether is very volatile, has good anaesthetic and analgesic effects and these, with the large reservoir effect and slow recovery, make it an effective anaesthetic, despite its low potency.
Halothane is a good anaesthetic, but a poor analgesic.
Thus the combination of low solubility, a small blood reservoir and postoperative pain causes the patient to wake up quickly. Trichloroethylene is a good analgesic but the patient breathing this alone will never get to the state of anaesthesia at all unless he is given the agent for several hours because it does not evaporate enough to give a sufficient inspiratory concentration and is rather blood soluble. The side effects of the individual agents are mentioned in more detail below. All volatile agents trigger Malignant Hyperthermia.