Ether Analgesia During Major Surgery

Abstract

Fundamental concepts of disease in otolaryngology have been revised considerably during the past two dec¬ ades by knowledge acquired from the basic sciences and its application to clinical practice. Physiology, micro-biology, clinical microscopy, and allergy particularly have contributed newer ideas and methods to the diag¬ nosis and therapy of nasal and aural diseases. Careful examination of secretions is valuable as a means of achieving more precise diagnosis and more effective therapy in vasomotor and infectious rhinitis and sinusitis and in external otitis and secretory otitis media.

The analgesic effect in humans of subanaesthetic isoflurane concentrations evaluated by experimentally induced pain

“…The analgesic effect at subanaesthetic concentrations of the "older" inhalation anaesthetics (ether, trichloroethylene, methoxyflurane and halothane) has been investigated using either clinical assessment or pain threshold measurements [2][3][4][5], but with conflicting results. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the analgesic effects of isoflurane on different pain modalities, using experimental models.…”

Investigations of Hypesthesia: Using Anesthetics to Explore Relationships between Consciousness, Learning, and Memory

“…This seems to impair cognition in a gradual, rather than all-or-none, fashion. For example, Artusio (1955) studied cognitive ability during induction of anesthesia with ether. Patients became increasingly less able to answer his questions, up to a point at which they were unresponsive and considered sufficiently unconscious for surgery to commence.…”

Patients' memories of events during general anaesthesia

“…In 1955 Artusio demonstrated that cardiac and abdominal surgery could be performed on patients with light ether sedation and the patients could be conscious, free of pain and remarkably co-operative, yet, after all but the lightest level of anaesthesia, have no spontaneous recall of intra-operative events [16]. In 1965 Levinson subjected 10 anaesthetised dental patients to a mock crisis.…”

“…The apparently anaesthetised patient is capable of responding to commands yet appears amnesic of events [16]. Further evidence for this stage of awareness has come from experiments using the isolated forearm technique (IFT).…”

“…They actually range from 30 to 100 Hz and may overlap with the beta band (15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30). It is believed that an important function of the '40-Hz' rhythm is to bind together the many discontinuous cortical networks needed in the conscious process.…”