First anaesthetics in the world.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to O Secher.
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Data about forty-six "first anaesthetics" have been collected from the literature. This makes it possible to get an impression of how fast the news of either anaesthesia spread to Europe and other parts of the world. Most European countries had the news within 4 months and other parts of the world within 9 months. The use of ether seems not to have spread faster in the US than in Europe.
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A short description of the life of Nikolai Ivanovich Pirogoff and some of his accomplishments are given. His book on administration of ether for anaesthesia (analgesia) by inhalation and by rectum is of special interest. In this book he also describes his experiments, mainly on dogs, with all kinds of administration. He was one of the first to write a book on ether and also to utilise anaesthesia under war conditions. Later he tended to favour chloroform, which he considered to be better. He accomplished a lot in life and was highly regarded at home and abroad.
The way in which the news about ether anaesthesia went from U.S.A. to Europe is briefly described. The first information about ether anaesthesia came to the Scandinavian countries in 1847 through newspapers, which had their information from newspapers in England, France and Germany. The professional news came to the respective countries from doctors who were studying medical progress in Paris or from French medical journals. The first Scandinavian Society to be informed was the Swedish, and the first ether anaesthesia was given in Stockholm about 6 February. Denmark was next, and the first anaesthesia was given about 20 February in Copenhagen. In Norway, ether was used on 4 March in Christiania (Oslo), and in Finland on 8 March in Helsingfors (Helsinki). Anaesthesia in Iceland cannot be traced any earlier than 1856. A table shows when the first anaesthetics were given in different places in Europe and the world.
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Six healthy, young male subjects performed repeated brisk maximal voluntary muscle contractions (MVC) with the knee and hip extensors. Three MVCs were performed every minute. On separate days decamethonium 0.03 mg X kg-1 and tubocurarine 0.01 mg X kg-1 were administered intravenously during repeated MVCs. While ordinary MVCs showed a slow rate of rise of tension over approximately 1 s, brisk MVCs showed a steep rate of rise of tension and a biphasic configuration appeared, as a notch was seen 370-480 ms after the initiation of the contraction curve. An arbitrary straight line was drawn connecting the starting point of the contraction curve and the notch. The tension time integral to the left and above this line (alpha component), respectively to the right and below the line (beta component) was measured during the first 600 ms of the contraction. Tubocurarine affected the beta component until 70% reduced. With further curarization, the remainder of the beta component was reduced together with the alpha component. Decamethonium, in contrast, affected the alpha component together with 30% of the beta component. Thereafter, the rest of the beta component was increasingly affected. The results suggest that the isometric mechanogram is composed of a phasically active component with a high innervation threshold primarily sensitive to decamethonium, and a tonically active component with a lower innervation threshold, and primarily sensitive to tubocurarine.
In a patients with severe pulmonary hypertension, haemodynamic observations, including cardiac output and pressure measurement in the systemic and the pulmonary circulation, were performed during vaginal delivery under selective segmental epidural block from T9 to L1 combined with bilateral pudendal blocks. No hypotensive episodes were observed in connection with the epidural block, but a gradual increase in the pulmonary pressures was observed during the stages of delivery. After perineal analgesia was achieved with bilateral pudendal blocks, a 2100 g girl with an Apgar score of 9 at 1 min was delivered by vacuum extraction. The patient died 9 days after the delivery because of intractable cardiac failure.
The effect of a bolus injection of tubocurarine (0.1-0.13 mg X kg-1 i.v.) was followed in six young male subjects by registration of the rectified smoothed electromyogram (rsEMG) from the m. soleus (71 +/- 5.1 (s.e. mean) % slow twitch muscle fibers) and from the m. gastrocnemius (54 +/- 3.1% slow twitch muscle fibers). Volitional muscle strength was recorded in isometric plantar flexions with the knee fully (0 degrees) extended where m. soleus and m. gastrocnemius both are active, and with the knee bent 90 degrees where m. soleus is dominating force development. During maximal action of the drug, the rsEMG from the soleus muscle was reduced to 30 +/- 4.0% of the control value, while the rsEMG from the gastrocnemius muscle was reduced to 53 +/- 5.2% (P less than 0.01). Muscle strength with the knee extended showed 53 +/- 7.5% force left, while 44 +/- 6.4% of the muscle strength remained when the knee was bent (P less than 0.01). The results suggest that tubocurarine affects human muscles in proportion to their slow twitch muscle fiber content.
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The force of maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) was compared during extension of one leg alone and during simultaneous extension of both legs. In 6 subjects MVC of two legs extension was 75 +/- 3.6 (S.E.)% of the sum of the single one leg MVC. This may indicate a reduced muscle fibre involvement during two leg extension as compared with one leg extension. We investigated the possibility that either red (type I) or white (type II) muscle fibre recruitment was restricted during two leg extension. The neuromuscular transmission in the two types of fibres was partially blocked with d-tubocurarine (dtc) or decamethonium (C10) for either type I or II, respectively. In 5 subjects receiving dtc the ratio between the reduced two leg and one leg extension forces (75 +/- 2.3%) did not change. During administration of C10, however, this ratio decreased by 16 +/- 3.1%. Partial blocking with dtc caused a two component curve during tension development with a first maximum at 0.22 s, and another maximum at 1.03 s of a 3 s attempt to reach MVC. During partial blocking with C10 results in muscle contractions where a relatively large amount of type I muscle fibres are contributing to the force developed. The experiment suggests that type I fibre recruitment is restricted during severe static exercise in normal muscles. Furthermore, it demonstrates that fibre recruitment can vary in the same muscle function performed with one leg or two legs.
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