For the past seven years tetracaine hydrochloride has been used by the members of the department of bronchoesophagology of the University of Virginia Hospital to obtain anesthesia of the mucosa of the upper air and food passages preparatory to endoscopic examination. There had never been any untoward reactions to the drug in our experience, and we felt that it constituted an ideal and safe topical anesthetic agent.
Our routine is to give pentobarbital sodium, 0.1 Gm., and morphine sulfate, 8 to 16 mg., forty-five minutes before taking the patient to the operating room. In the operating room a 2 per cent solution of tetracaine hydrochloride is sprayed into the pharynx with a hand atomizer twice every three minutes for a total of five times. The solution from the first spraying is swallowed in order to obtain some anesthesia of the upper part of the esophagus, and the solution from the