Lidocaine given intravenously as a suppressant of cough and laryngospasm in connection with extubation after tonsillectomy.

The preventive effect of lidocaine against coughing in the recovery period after general anaesthesia was observed. The study was carried out as a double-blind sequential trial. At the same time the incidence of laryngospasm was registered. Lidocaine or placebo was given intravenously just before extubation. Nineteen patients for tonsillectomy, all of them over the age of 15, randomly received a 2% solution of lidocaine 2 mg/kg body weight or placebo (saline) 2 min prior to expected extubation. We found that lidocaine in this dose given prophylactically just before extubation was able to inhibit and prevent coughing in the recovery period after general anaesthesia. None of the patients included in this study got laryngospasm, and none of the patients developed serious side-effects.