Tris-hydroxymethylaminomethane

Several alkalization agents have been developed as possible alternatives to sodium bicarbonate. These include carbicarb (a mixture of sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate) and tris-hydroxymethylaminomethane (also called THAM or tromethamine). These agents theoretically produce a lesser increase in plasma carbon dioxide tension and, therefore, less CSF and intracellular acidosis. However, this does not appear to be the case for tromethamine, which resulted in a decrease in CSF pH similar to sodium bicarbonate in healthy horses (Pedrick et al 1998). 

Buffers can also be composed of weak bases and their salts examples include ammonia buffer, used to control the pH of compleximetric titrations (see Chapter 6) and the common biological buffer TRIS (or tris(hydroxymethylaminomethane), C4HnN03), used to control the pH of protein solutions. 

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