Question: A group of anesthesiologists wanted to study the effects of age on the duration of epidural anesthesia in a group of 10 female surgical patients aged 40 to 80 years undergoing a hysterectomy procedure. Blood samples were collected at set time intervals after administration of the epidural, and the rate of total plasma clearance (expressed in ml/min) was calculated for each patient. You were asked analyze this data and predict what the most likely plasma clearance would be based on the following ages. (2 marks)

i) 45 years (.5 mark)

II) 78 years (.5 mark)

iii) What would you provide as an explanation of your results to the physicians? (1 mark)