Hypnosis can be a useful therapeutic adjunct to pharmacological analgesia or anaesthesia in obstetrics. However, it is rarely considered a primary anaesthetic technique and is seldom employed in the acute surgical setting. Few obstetricians and anaesthetists currently utilise this technique in their clinical practice. We present a case report of a 34-year-old woman who successfully underwent evacuation of a large vulval haematoma using the simple hypnosis technique of 'believed-in imagination' as the principal anaesthetic technique with only minimal adjunctive pharmacological analgesia.
© 2011 The Authors. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology © 2011 The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.