Does anybody use halothane anymore?

Started by Walter Petorski, January 05, 2005, 03:14:23 AM

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Walter Petorski

Well, does anyone?

I must admit I still use it rarely for bronchoscopeis in children. I breath them down on halothane, get them very deep, spray the airway, and when deep enough, let the ENT guys at them. The long wash-out time enables the surgeon to do a lot of work before I have to re-dose the anesthetic. For adutls I use a propofol infusion (of course).


George Miklos

I still use it occassionally for inducing the unco-operative child. Halothane provides a longer, but smoother induction with which you can "sneak up" onto your unsuspecting child. It has a nice feature of being heavy, and pools into a hand cupped under a child's chin. By the time the child realises that something is up, they are half-stunned by the initial dose.

Sure beats forcing a sevo-filled mask onto the little mite's face.

Russell Coupland

I don't think its what you use, its how you use it. I was a big user of halothane in its day. Hey, I practically grew up on the stuff. But there is nothing I can't do with sevo that I sued to be able to do with halothane. And I now do it faster with sevo, and safer too - no catecholamine potentiation to worry about.

Halothane is dead - long live sevo!

George Miklos

Anesthetizing children is an art. It takes more than just clamping a sevo-filled big black mask on their little terrified faces. Try as I might (and I have tried) I just can't sneak up on children with sevo as I can with halothane. I can drift the most terrified child off to sleep with halothane before they even notice anything is happening, and certainly before a mask nears their head.

I always have both halothane and sevo vaporizers on my machine for pediatric lists. I use sevo for most cases - yep its fast and convenient. But when the situation calls for it, out comes the halothane. I sing to the child, ask them questions, distract them. I cup my hand under their chin and drift halothane from above in front of their face, letting it pool into my cupped hand. Low concentrations to start, and slowly rack it up. The child yawns, eyes start to drift, halothane concentration goes up, cupped hand gets a little more mask-like, hose outlet gets closer to face. Once the child is sleepy, the hand is replaced by a mask and the hose attached. Sleeping child and very impressed parents.

Can't do that with sevo.

jetproppilot

Haven't seen a halothane vaporizer in years. Sevo rules in a fast paced practice. My previous practice (just moved to New Orleans eight months ago) had a surgery center doing an average of 30 cases a day. Some days we would do 20 child ENT cases. Using sevo instead of halo probably saved us an hour a day!!!

NM23

I think that is what I had when I was kid and I had my tonsels out, I hated it, Id much rather have an injection than gas, i remember trying not to breathe it in, but obviously it didnt work

amarkatira

weare still using halothane regulerly.

gassleep

Just read your post on Gas(HalovsSev)As a willing Gasboy(Patient) very nervous about Iv.Would gas be good for me(35yr old male health)?Would like your input into my query.thanks>Paul

lovebailey2000

I believe that in most part of our world halothane is still being used, coz it is cheap.

halo-shake

yes, i always use halothane for both induction of children as well maintainnance anaesthesia. catecholamine potentiation only possible with halothane in the presence of hypoxia and hypercarbia. moreover, it is cheap, plesant smell, bronchodilator. can be used with simple vaporiser,thus economical too. 

Alireza

Hi every body.we use halothane in our hospital routinly.because the insurance services only accept halathane >:(

yogenbhatt1

In majority part of India where I practice, that Includes major city like Bombay ( Now Mumbai), Halothane is still counted as a modern drug. Ether is still used in many parts. Though Sevo and Iso are available in major institutions, I wonder if that is used by even 5 % of total Anaesthesioloigsts here. This is opinion of an anaesthesioloigist in Private practice who also works in corporation general hospital.
But gradually use of Sevo is increasing in Mumbai. Rest of the country, Halothane is still the best.

jafo1964

we are happier with the known devil(Halothane) than the unknown

Miller 5th ed clearly states that HALOTHANE MUST NOT BE USED IN NORMAL ADULT PATIENTS UNLESS YOU HAVE A DEFINITIVE (hardly any) INDICATION.

I do use halothane extensively too. But even if 1 patient develops fulminant hepatic failure it will be difficult to defend it.
Iso flurane, Sevo and Des also have there own problems

But current scientific evidence would support a move away from Halo to Iso/ Sevo

We swore by Gallamine, we dropped for Pancuronium and now we are into Vec, Atra and Roc

Move where the scientific evidence takes you and thats the basic essence of evidence based medicine

Regs


dramitshah

well i am from samll city than mumbai india, but i have stopped using halothane since atleast 3-4 years.
we were mostly using isoflurane for the maintenance of g/a and now sevoflurane is becoming easily available, we are gradually shifting to sevoflurane. halothane is not used.

hillpeng

very few. only on animals. i can't find it ,although i want use