Medicine: Needle in the Tongue

When the patient is unconscious or anesthetized and a doctor wants to give a quick-acting injection in a hurry, he often has trouble (especially in the very young and very fat) in finding a vein. The answer, said British Anesthetist John Bullough in last week's Lancet, is to make the injection into the tongue. A few drugs cannot be administered in this way because they cause irritation, but most give no trouble and are absorbed in about a minute.