Vol.96 No.8 contentsPRACTICA OTO-RHINO-LARYNGOLOGICA
Vol. 96 No.8 August 2003
The Advantage of Ketamine Anesthesia for
Insertion of Ear Tubes in Infants
Yoko Osawa, Masafumi Sakashita and Shigeharu Fujieda
(Fukui Medical University)
Yasuhiro Manabe
(Shinseikai Toyama Hospital)
When a tympanic membrane tube is inserted in an infant with otitis media with effusion, the procedure is often performed under general anesthesia. In such cases, hospitalization for a few days is generally required. The health expenditure increases with general anesthesia and hospitalization. Recently a one-day operation has been widely performed and demonstrates merits such as reduction of health expenditures and patient burden. Therefore, we attempted intravenous anesthesia using ketamine hydrochloride for one-day procedure. With respect to 41 cases of infant exudative otitis media, profitability was compared in the hospitalization under general anesthesia group and the one-day procedure with ketamine hydrochloride group. Tube insertion was completed in a very short time under ketamine anesthesia. In the ketamine group, there were no major complications and the health expenditure was limited. Ketamine is a very suitable anesthesia for tympanic membrane tube insertion in an infant.
Key words : ketamine, ear tubing, infants