Halothane and enflurane in dental anaesthesia.

A clinical trial was designed to compare the use of halothane and enflurane in outpatient dental anaesthesia. A wholly inhalational technique was chosen. Basal nitrous oxide and oxygen was delivered from a Walton V demand-flow machine and was supplemented alternately with halothane or enflurane delivered from paired Goldman vaporisers in series. Under these circumstances, enflurane produced significantly fewer dysrhythmias than halothane, but was a more difficult, more expensive and less versatile agent to use. Overall, it was considered inferior to halothane in this context except, perhaps, where repeat anaesthetics may be required at short intervals of time.