[Anesthesia with oral ketamine]

Oral ketamine (7.5 mg X kg-1) was used to induce general anaesthesia in fourty seven young women undergoing voluntary abortion. Additional anaesthesia was necessary eight times because pre operative consciousness remained normal, and nine times because of important intra operative reactions. A majority (78.8%) of patients appreciated this technique of anaesthesia. Absence of narcosis (17%) and intra operative analgesia (23%) and frequency of post operative nightmares may require some modifications of the method.