FEAR OF OPERATIONS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 255, 25 September 1935, Page 3

FEAR OF OPERATIONS.

SEDATIVES FOR NERVOUS PATIENTS. For average persons, and especially highly strung patients, thought of the operating theatre is something of an ordeal. A paper read by a Melbourne anaesthetist at a meeting of the section of the B.M.A. Conference in Melbourne, dealing with pharmacology, therapeutics, and anaesthesia, dealt with the use of narcotics before anaesthesia, and emphasised, among other points, that nervous and highly strung patients, especially children, required a sedative before an anaesthetic, and that sometimes it might even be desirable to have them taken to the operating theatre asleep. It was stated that the use of sedatives reduced the amount of general anaesthetic necessary, and made its administration easier, and that every patient should receive individual consideration regarding the choice, and quantity of drug. Adequate use of sedatives, it was observed, would frequently reduce post-anaestlietic vomiting.