A prospective study with 161 patients was performed to investigate the effects of intravenous local anaesthetics on the pain of injection following etomidate injection. After placebo injection 56.6% of the patients reported on pain after etomidate, but only 29% after 20 mg lidocaine i.v. Lidocaine combined with venous congestives significantly reduced the incidence of pain to 3.35%. A dilution of etomidate with water (ratio 1:1) had a lower effect (17.6% incidence of pain). The rate of postoperative thrombophlebitis was lowest in the group with combined lidocaine with venous congestives at 7.4%, in opposition to a rate of 18% in the remaining groups. In comparison to a second contralateral venous cannula without applied etomidate the venous sequelae did not increase significantly.