The Dose Response of Intravenous Thiopental for the Induction of General Anesthesia in Unpremedicated Children

Abstract

Several anesthesia textbooks quote the pediatric induction dose for sodium thiopental as being 2-5 mg/kg. Clinical experience has been that unpremedicated children often require the higher dosage for a satisfactory induction. A review of the literature revealed no prospective studies examining the dose requirements of thiopental in children. Two commonly accepted indicators of induction, loss of the lid reflex (LR) and acceptance of the anesthesia mask (AM), and 2 less commonly utilized indicators, loss of corneal reflex (CR) and response to squeezing the trapezius muscle (TMR) were evaluated.