This study was designed to evaluate the influence of inhalational agents on the intestinal circulation in an isolated loop preparation. Sixty dogs were studied, using three intestinal segments from each dog. Selected intestinal segments were pumped with aortic blood at a constant pressure of 100 mmHg. A mixture of86Rb and 9-μm spheres labeled with141Ce was injected into the arterial cannula supplying the intestinal loop, while mesenteric venous blood was collected for activity counting. A very strong and significant correlation was found between rubidium clearance and microsphere entrapment (r = 0.97,P< 0.0001), suggesting that the shunting of 9-μm spheres through the intestines reflects the arteriovenous shunting of blood. Nitrous oxide anesthesia was accompanied by a higher vascular resistance (VR), lower flow (F), rubidium clearance (Cl-Rb), and microspheres entrapment (Cl-Sph) than pentobarbital anesthesia, indicating that the vascular bed in the intestinal segment was constricted and flow (total and nutritive) decreased. Halothane, enflurane, and isoflurane anesthesia were accompanied by a much lower arteriovenous oxygen content difference (AVDO2) and oxygen uptake than pentobarbital or nitrous oxide. Compared with pentobarbital, enflurane anesthesia was not accompanied by marked differences in VR, F, Cl-Rb, and Cl-Sph; halothane at 2 MAC decreased VR and increased F and Cl-Rb while isoflurane increased VR and decreased F. α-Adrenoceptor blockade with phentolamine (1 mg·kg−1) abolished isoflurane-induced vasoconstriction, suggesting that the increase in VR was mediated via circulating catecholamines. Decreases in mesenteric blood flow, which always have been observed during inhalation anesthesia, primarily are caused by the indirect effects of anesthetics mediated through changes in systemic circulation and the central nervous system.