Two methods of anesthesia for rhinoplasty in outpatient setting

This retrospective study was designed with the aim to evaluate suitability of two methods of anesthesia: local anesthesia combined with sedation (midazolam + pethidine) or dissociative (midazolam + ketamine hydrochloride) anesthesia for performing rhinoplasties in an outpatient setting. During 1985-1994, we performed 516 rhinoplasties in 464 patients. Sedation and local anesthesia was used in 263, and dissociative and local anesthesia in 253 procedures. Both methods were well tolerated by the patients, no serious anesthetic complications were seen, and the clinical problems in connection with anesthesia were acceptably low. The use of sedation technique and dissociative anesthesia in combination with local anesthesia have both proved to be safe and effective anesthetic methods for performing rhinoplasty.