The volatile anaesthetics are a class of general anaesthetic drugs. They all share the property of being liquid at room temperature but vaporising easily.

Anaesthetists adminster these agents using an anaesthetic vaporiser attached to an anaesthetic machine.

They include:

• sevoflurane - sweet smelling and quite rapid onset and offset
• desflurane - pungent smelling but rapid onset and offset
• isoflurane- pungent smelling
• halothane - sweet smelling, slow onset and offset
• enflurane- pungent smelling and lowers seizure threshold, slowish onset and offset
• methoxyflurane - analgesic, very slow slowish onset and offset, still used by paramedics as an emergency analgesic in trauma cases