Anaesthesia and Sedation For Electrocochleography

Anaesthesia and sedation in electrocochleo-graphy are of paramount importance for the whole procedure, since restlessness of the patient during the measurements can invalidate the results of the test. The time needed for extensive electrocochleography amounts on average to two hours. The only pain experienced during the procedure is associated with the placement of the transtympanic electrode. A relatively long-lasting, light level of anaesthesia has to be achieved to obtain the desired relative or absolute immobility of the patient. For the psychologically normal adult, local anaesthesia and additional sedation will meet the requirements for electrocochleography, but for children and mentally disturbed or anxious patients general anaesthesia is necessary. Tor children under the age of 8 years, two types of anaesthesia are available, i.e. dissociative anaesthesia and inhalation anaesthesia. After relatively extensive experience with dissociative anaesthesia, we abandoned this method because the above-mentioned requirements for ECoG could not be adequately satisfied during the entire duration (two hours) of the procedure. Inhalation anaesthesia, using the semi-closed-circle technique, has proved to be the optimal available procedure in these cases.