Awake endotracheal intubation: a review of 267 cases.

During a 3-month period, 267 "awake" endotracheal intubations, representing 35 percent of all preoperative intubations, were performed with small doses of amnalgesic drugs given intravenously. Of 249 patients interviewed postoperatively, 86 percent reported complete amnesia for the procedure and only 3.5 percent recalled the event as being "quite unpleasant".