One hour before operation the patient is given hypodermatically a full
physiologic dose of morphin sulphate (from 1/4, to 3/8 gr.) guarded
with atropin sulphate (gr. 1/150). Care must be taken that the
injection be not given into a vein. On the operating table the
epiglottis and pharynx are painted with 10 per cent solution of
cocain. Two applications are usually sufficient completely to
anesthetize the exterior and interior of the larynx by blocking of the
superior laryngeal nerve without any endolaryngeal applications. The
laryngoscope is now introduced and if found necessary a 20 per cent
cocain solution is applied to the interior of the larynx and
subglottic region, by means of gauze swabs fastened to the sponge
carriers. Here also two applications are quite sufficient to produce
complete anesthesia in the larynx. If bronchoscopy is to be done the
gauze swab is carried down through the exposed glottis to the carina,
thus anesthetizing the tracheal mucosa. If further anesthetization of
the bronchial mucosa is required, cocain may be applied in the same
manner through the bronchoscope. In all these local applications
prolonged contact of the swab is much more efficient than simply
painting the surface.
[67] In cases in which cocain is deemed contraindicated morphin alone
is used. If given in sufficient dosage cocain can be altogether
dispensed with in any case.
It is perhaps _safer for the beginner_ in his early cases of
esophagoscopy to have the patient relaxed by an ether anesthesia,
provided the patient is not dyspneic to begin with, or made so by
faulty position or by pressure of the esophagoscopic tube mouth on the
tracheoesophageal "party wall." As proficiency develops, however, he
will find anesthesia unnecessary. Local anesthesia is needless for
esophagoscopy, and if used at all should be limited to the
laryngopharynx and never applied to the esophagus, for the esophagus
is without sensation, as anyone may observe in drinking hot liquids.
_Direct laryngoscopy in children_ requires neither local nor general
anesthesia, either for diagnosis or for removal of foreign bodies or
growths from the larynx. General anesthesia is contraindicated because
of the dyspnea apt to be present, and because the struggles of the
patient might cause a dislodgment of the laryngeal intruder and
aspiration to a lower level. The latter accident is also prone to
follow attempts to cocainize the larynx.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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