Ketamine anesthesia for pediatric gastrointestinal procedures.

Ketamine HCl anesthesia was used for gastrointestinal therapeutic and diagnostic procedures in 26 children aged 3 mo to 16 yr. In addition, atropine was used for the gastroscopies and diazepam for the colonoscopies. Ketamine, 5 to 8 mg/kg body wt administered i.m., produced rapid anesthesia of short duration which allowed easy performance of the procedure. No serious side effects were noted, but care must be taken as ketamine is a general anesthetic with potential side effects during and after the period of anesthesia. This satisfactory initial experience should be confirmed by a controlled study of anesthetic agents for pediatric gastrointestinal procedures.