Journal of Anesthesia History

BACKGROUND: Regional and general anesthesia were widely available in the United States in the late 1960s. The risk of permanent neurological sequelae resulting from spinal anesthesia had largely been dismissed. Although many academic departments of anesthesiology had gained independent status, a significant number operated as divisions within the department of surgery. We present a case report from Peter Bent Brigham Hospital to illustrate the state of anesthetic techniques in use during the late 1960s, and the power dynamics vis-à-vis physician anesthesiologists and surgeons...

After the first successful public demonstration of modern anesthesia in 1846, most female anesthetists were nurses by trade since none were yet allowed to attend medical school to become physicians. The turn of the twentieth century, however, brought about greater opportunity for female physician-anesthetists. We explore the life and career of Barbara E. Waud (1931-), a pioneering woman physician and researcher in the field of anesthesiology. Waud chose to pursue a career in medicine at a time when most women did not even attend college, and for most of her training and practice, she was the only woman in her department...

After a brief "golden age" in the late 1800s, the patriarchal establishment fought back and women faced increasing restrictions in practicing medicine. In 1900, 18.2% of all physicians in the city of Boston were women, but this number decreased to 8.7% by 1930. The relatively young field of anesthesiology was one of the more welcoming specialties for women during this time. History has been unkind to these early female trailblazers who have often been overlooked in favor of the men in their fields...

Now a routine lifesaving treatment, blood transfusion between humans became a safe procedure only after many early therapeutic disasters. Performed between different species, heterologous transfusions actually succeeded homologous transfusions, those performed between members of the same species. In the early history of transfusion, both homologous and heterologous transfusions were performed in many clinical settings. Early clinicians were unable to distinguish between deaths caused by baseline illness and those resulting from transfusions...

This paper is the continuation (Part 2) of an extensive, critical reappraisal of the international historiography on modern anesthesia and its technology. The first paper of this series provided general definitions, backgrounds and an update on recent research on one aspect of this topic: the history of professionalization / specialization (Part 1).1 This paper goes on to provide a first, international comparison of entire anesthesia devices and on the history of nitrous-oxide-based anesthesia (c. 1900-1930s)...

This paper is the first in a series of publications. These investigate, whether important elements of the historiography of anesthesia require a critical reappraisal. A systematic, combined presentation, contextualization and assessment of recent European research is provided. This includes the author's own findings. These emanate from two extensive projects. They combine very recent findings with results of earlier research, conducted by the author and numerous collaborators over the last 18 years. The findings represent an ever increasing and ever more robust body of evidence...

In the 1940s, Seymour S. Kety and Carl F. Schmidt measured cerebral blood flow in awake humans by means of subanesthetic doses of inhaled nitrous oxide. The inhalation route obviated the need for an arterial injection of the indicator, and nitrous oxide had virtues of metabolic inertness, rapid diffusion through the blood-brain barrier, comparable blood and brain solubility, and ease of analytical detection. The technique was also applied to the heart. Follow-up work by Kety contributed to the development of brain scanning methods...

In his Tractatus Quinque Medico-Physici of 1674, John Mayow wrote that a fifth of atmospheric air is comprised of nitro-aerial spirit. That so-called spirit participates in both respiration and combustion. The etymology of "nitro-aerial spirit" stems from a mineral long called niter and now specified as potassium nitrate. Niter mixed with sulfur and carbon is gunpowder, developed in the ninth century in China. Mayow appreciated that niter was the oxidant in the energy-yielding reaction of gunpowder...

On 8 March 2018, the Geoffrey Kaye Museum of Anaesthetic History launched its latest exhibition in an online format, The Rare Privilege of Medicine: Women Anaesthetists in Australia and New Zealand. The launch was deliberately timed to coincide with International Women's Day which carried the theme of "Press for Progress." These women's stories reveal them to have been champions for progress, as well as having the potential to be inspirational beacons of progress for the future, thereby fitting easily into the theme...

PURPOSE: One of the most interesting signs of growth in a medical specialty is the addition of pain medicine as a clinical subspecialty to it. The aim of this study was to analyze publication-based academic interest in pain medicine among clinical specialties with long-standing involvement in pain management. METHODS: We assessed the activity within several specialties in the development of an academic foundation for pain medicine by measuring the frequency of the most common pain topics (1998-2017) in academic journals representing such specialties...

Methoxyflurane was an inhaled agent commonly used for general anesthesia in the 1960s, but its clinical role gradually decreased in the 1970s because of reports of dose-dependent nephrotoxicity. In 1999 its manufacturer, Abbott Laboratories, discontinued distribution of methoxyflurane in the United States and Canada. Outside of North America, however, methoxyflurane has been reborn as an inhaled analgesic used for pain relief in the prehospital setting and for minor surgical procedures. First used in Australia and New Zealand, and subsequently in over thirty-seven other countries, low concentrations of methoxyflurane are administered with a hand-held inhaler which provides conscious sedation, so that patients can self-assess their level of pain and control the amount of inhaled agent...

Sunday February 24, 1957 was a pivotal day in the history of anesthesiology and pain medicine. The leader of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Pius XII met with anesthesiologists attending an international symposium sponsored by the Italian Society of Anesthesiologists entitled, "Anesthesia and the Human Personality". The purpose of this audience was to seek clarification about the use of opioids at the end of life to reduce suffering. Three questions had been formulated from the previous year's Italian Congress of Anesthesiologists and sent to the Holy See on this specific issue...

Leo Fabian played a role in many anesthesia firsts: the first halothane anesthetics in the United States, the first American electrical anesthetic, the first lung allotransplant, and the first heart xenotransplant. As was common for men of his generation, Fabian's first taste of medicine came during World War II, as a pharmacist's mate aboard the U.S.S. Bountiful. Afterward, he pursued his medical education before joining Dr. C. Ronald Stephen and the anesthesiology department at Duke. There he helped to create one of the first inhalers for halothane, the Fabian Newton Stephen (F-N-S) Fluothane Vaporizer...

For 12 days in April 1944, a hastily constituted force of British and Indian combat troops held at bay 10 times their number of the seemingly invincible Japanese Imperial Army. The story of the siege of Kohima is one of courage, determination, and leadership. The Burma campaign and, indeed, the Asian theater of World War II as a whole are often overlooked other than by those with a special interest; this article is intended to inform and perhaps inspire a wider readership. The article describes the situation in North Eastern India, prior to and during the siege, from both military and medical points of view...

Behind every successful physician there are mentors to light the path. Ralph Waters, founder of the anesthesiology residency at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was an instrumental part of Virginia Apgar's success; his support of her education and promotion of her professional endeavors proved to shape the medical powerhouse that Apgar would become. In this article, we learn about the professional and personal relationship between Waters and Apgar through personal correspondence from the Ralph Waters Collection at University of Wisconsin Archives, scientific publications, and meeting records...

The name of Keizo Uenaka has not been documented in textbooks. However, Uenaka was the scientist who worked on ephedrine and played a practical role in the purification and crystallization of adrenaline. His handwritten memorandum, "On Adrenaline, Memorandum, July to December, 1900" is now stored in a Buddhist temple, Kyougyou-ji in Nashio, Japan. In the present report, we compared Uenaka's original description and Jokichi Takamine's published scientific reports, and examined how each statement in four documents are related to each other in terms of successful adrenaline crystallization...

Milton Antony (1789-1839), an apprenticed trained physician, began educating medical apprentices in 1826 and helped to establish the Medical College of Georgia (MCG) in 1829. Antony recruited additional faculty, Louis Dugas (anatomy and physiology), and Paul Eve (surgery), and together they worked to promote the dissemination of new medical knowledge and enhance and reform medical education. As a result of their efforts, the Southern Medical and Surgical Journal (SMSJ) was established in 1836. The SMSJ became the most successful and widely read regional medical journal...

In 1812, Frances (Fanny) Burney (born in 1752 and died in 1840) underwent a mastectomy performed by Larry without anaesthesia. In the days after surgery, Burney wrote a letter to her sister, Esther Burney, describing her experience. In total, the letter is four pages long including information on before, during and after the surgery. Although this letter has been cited in numerous texts, it has yet to be analysed from multiple perspectives, shedding new light on the history of anaesthesia.

In 1758, Benjamin Franklin froze water by means of the evaporation of diethyl ether. Diethyl ether became the coolant in early mechanical refrigerators and ice makers. Refrigeration advances by Carl von Linde and others provide medical oxygen from the air, liquid nitrogen for cryopreservation and cryoablation, xenon for inhaled anesthesia, and liquid helium for supercooling of magnetic resonance image scanners.

BACKGROUND: Acupuncture anesthesia was used instead of intubation anesthesia in the 1970s and 1980s in West Germany and West Berlin. In East Germany acupuncture played no decisive role. SOURCES: Different articles and papers in journals, in daily press, statements of contemporary witnesses, films, records in archives. RESULTS: As in other Western countries, acupuncture was hugely popular in the Federal Republic of Germany in the 1970s. Chief triggers were the state visits to China of the American President Richard Nixon in 1972 and shortly thereafter of West German Foreign Minister Walter Scheel and his wife Mildred, an x-ray technician...