Abstract

That there can be more than one pharmacological means to an end is well shown by the variety of pre-anaesthetic regimes in use. Premedication is intended chiefly to produce sedation (and perhaps inhibit undesirable reflexes and secretions) so that the patient’s anxiety will be less, induction and maintenance of anaesthesia smoother, and disturbance of physiological processes reduced. Much current literature neglects the basic physiology of anaesthesia while dwelling on the merits of one or another drug.