Caudal anesthesia in infants.

This report summarizes experience with caudal anesthesia in 70 infants ranging in age from 4 to 110 weeks, selected at random from among infants undergoing routine surgical procedures. In 50 infants, lidocaine 1.5% and in 20 infants, mepivacaine 1.5%, was used. In 35 cases, the dosage of the drug to be administered was calculated on the basis of an empirical formula and in the other 35, the dose was based on body weight. The author concludes that infants can tolerate some local anesthetic agents in even higher proportional doses than adults.