KETAMINE (KETALAR, CI-581 ) is a rapidly acting non-barbiturate general anaesthetic for intravenous or intra-muscular injection. It may be used as the sole anaesthetic for short procedures, as an induction agent for other anaesthetics, or as a supplement to other low potency anaesthetic agents. The advantages are claimed to be short action, minimal nausea and vomiting, wide margin of safety, maintenance of pharyngeal and laryngeal reflexes with minimal depression of respiration, and mild stimulation of the cardiovascular system. The hypertension and tachycardia resulting from the stimulation may however be a disadvantage in a patient with existing high blood pressure or cardiac decompensation. Other disadvantages are the lack of muscle relaxation, and the relatively high incidence of postoperative psychic side effects. The pharmacological actions of ketamine in human volunteers were first reported by Domino et al. in 1965,1 and in 130 patients by Corssen and Domino in 1966. 2 Since then, its use in a wide variety of surgical procedures has been reported mostly encompassing clinical observations only. A few of these reports mention dilatation and curettage in passing, but there has been no concentrated study of the use of ketamine for this operation, except for the rather vague report of Dundee et al. in 19703,4 which describes the use of ketamine for induction before continuing with nitrous oxide and oxygen. It was therefore decided to investigate the use of ketamine for this operation, which is a standard procedure with little variability in surgical technique. METHOD