Ketamine monoanaesthesia for diagnostic muscle biopsy in neuromuscular disorders in infancy and childhood: floppy infant syndrome.

The anaesthetic management of children with neuromuscular diseases giving rise to hypotonia is associated with a variety of problems. Ketamine alone was given by the intravenous or intramuscular route to 32 children with Floppy Infant Syndrome for diagnostic muscle biopsy. The patients aged between three months and 12 yr and weighing 3.2 to 28 kg were studied over three years (1986-1988). The special anaesthetic problems are discussed. The use of ketamine dissociative anaesthesia is reviewed with emphasis on congenital neuromuscular disorders.