Abstract

The term ‘intravenous anaesthesia’ has become ambiguous, because except for short outpatient or surgery procedures, it is unusual nowadays for general anaesthesia to be produced by means of either a gas or an intravenous injection alone. Because other drugs are also used as adjuncts, difficulties of terminology may arise. For instance, should the nitrous oxide/oxygen/curare technique be described as an inhalation, intravenous or combined technique? An attempt is made to avoid such difficulties in the title of this article.