SEMI – STRANGULATION

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 228, 27 September 1938, Page 4

SEMI - STRANGULATION

DOCTORS' EXPERIMENTS.

TESTING OF A MIXTURE

(Special—By Air Mall.)

LEEDS, September 3.

' ? r^V, S ; Sykps - a * ed 44 > of Morlev w i °f- * e *»»l<i Lawrence, aged 28, nf Wakefield, have suffered semi-strangula-tion testing a mixture of oxvgen and helium which they think mav be of use in cases of obstructed breathing or of collapse under an anaesthetic

Writing m the "British Medical Journal, they say: "As no patients with respiratory difficulties were available, personal experiments were carried out with artificial obstructions.

_ We tried to obtain many readings in one evening and very soon found thßt the fatigue caused by semiStrangulation produced increasingly rapid intolerance to a repetition of the process."

The "semi-strangulation" was created by fitting a rubber mouthpiece with a ■crew clamp which was "tightened until considerable constriction was caused." Normally air contains 20 per cent oxygen and 30 per cent nitrogen. Helium is much lighter than nitrogen but has similar properties.

The experiments were based on the theory that oxygen and helium, being lighter than oxygen and nitrogen, would pass more freely through a partly obstructed respiratory tube and help patients through a crisis.

The conclusion reached is that the helium and oxygen is about twice as easy to breathe as ordinary air, and that the mixture should prove of great value.