This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

I have some concerns regarding the article "Phenylephrine and the Prevention of Postoperative Tympanostomy Tube Obstruction"¹ in last November's issue of the ARCHIVES. The authors recommend the ototopical administration of 4 drops of 0.025% phenylephrine hydrochloride to reduce the incidence of tympanostomy tube obstruction secondary to blood and/or secretions encountered at the time of myringotomy and tube placement. To my knowledge, the most dilute solution of phenylephrine hydrochloride commercially available is a 0.125% drop formulation. The authors make no specific mention of diluting either this or the 0.25%, 0.5%, or 1.0% solutions commercially available in drops and sprays.

There have been recent published warnings regarding the intraoperative use of phenylephrine hydrochloride in the operating room.² The initial dose of phenylephrine should not exceed 0.5 mg, the equivalent of 4 drops of the 0.25% solution. The authors should make it very clear that they are recommending a 10-fold further dilution. My . . . [Full Text of this Article]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?