Sublingual lorazepam: a better premedication?

The efficacy of a sublingual preparation of lorazepam was compared with an i.m. injection of lorazepam as premedication for 150 patients undergoing minor gynaecological surgery.

A randomized evaluation of the reversal of ketamine by physostigmine.

One hundred and eleven patients undergoing ketamine anaesthesia for therapeutic abortion were studied in a double-blind trial of the reversal of ketamine by physostigmine administered postoperatively. The results demonstrate that physostigmine does not shorten recovery time or reduce the occurrence of ketamine emergence phenomena such as hallucinations, restlessness and dreams. In fact, the recovery course was prolonged in patients given physostigmine immediately upon termination of anaesthesia as compared with controls.

Comparison of lorazepam and diazepam as premedicants.

A double-blind random study compared lorazepam with diazepam as i.m. premedicants in 84 healthy women undergoing uterine curettage.

The measurement of anxiety in the pre-surgical patient.

Sixty-nine female patients were assessed for anxiety before receiving premedication. Thirty-three were given lorazepam and 36 were given papaveretum. Re-evaluation 90 min after premedication indicated that lorazepam reduced significantly the level of anxiety, but that papaveretum did not.

Lorazepam as a premedication.

A double-blind random study compared the effects of lorazepam and pantopon an intra-muscular premedication in healthy women for uterine curettage (D & C). Anxiety, as assessed by a self-rating test by the patient and by a trained observer, showed a significant reduction at one and one-half hours after lorazepam and a smaller reduction after pantopon, which was not significant. Sedation was satisfactory with no significant difference between the two drugs in the change before and after the premedication.

A consideration of ketamine dreams.

This study was designed to see whether covering of the eyes during and after ketamine anaesthesia would reduce the incidence of dreams. One hundred and fifty patients, randomly divided into three groups, underwent therapeutic abortion with ketamine as the sole anaesthesia. One hundred patients had their eyes completely covered, 50 in the operating room only and 50 in the operating room and in the recovery room.