NEW DEVICE FOR ANAESTHESIA

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26869, 23 October 1952, Page 11

NEW DEVICE FOR ANAESTHESIA

OTAGO INVENTION DESCRIBED

A mechanical device for use in hypotensive anaesthesia has been invented by two members of the staff of the Otago Medical School, and it is regarded as a development of world-

wide importance. Reference to the invention was made at a meeting of the North Canterbury Hospital Board yesterday by Mr J. J. Brownlee, when the finance committee recommended that authority should be given for an anaesthetist to visit Dunedin to learn the technique. Mr Brownlee said that, in hypotensive anaesthesia, used chiefly in plastic and brain operations, the patient was tilted to allow the blood to flow away from the part of his body on which the operation was to take place. If the injection was to be of sufficient quantity to have the desired effect, there was a danger to the patient when the flow of blood was resumed, and in England it was the practice for the anaesthetist to remain in the building for six to 12 hours after the operation so that the position of the patient’s body could be changed if necessary. In Dunedin, Professor F. H. Smirk and Dr. J. H. Saunders had invented a mechanical device—a pressurised box fc—which eliminated much of the danger, and used about half the usual amount of drug, Mr Brownlee said. The board adopted the recommenda-