Anaesthetic Suspected Of Damaging Liver

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30125, 8 May 1963, Page 20

Anaesthetic Suspected Of Damaging Liver

(New Zealand Press Association)

HAMILTON, Hay 7. An anaesthetic, halothane, which has been used widely in New Zealand fcir several years, is uhder suspicion overseas. It is believed to Ve the cause of a • liver disease and in some cases death. A Hamilton dentist learned of this when a doctor friend in Boston wrote saying that the Massachusetts General Hospital has banned the drug’s use. The hospital believed, the doctor said, that halothane killed liver tissue, with death sometimes following in a few weeks or months. The dentist then conducted his own investigations and

wrote to Boston seeking further information. He believes it is possible that the drug may have been the cause of deaths in New Zealand. “Halothane should be restricted in its use in New Zealand till tests clear it,” he said. “Advocates of this drug say that it has no effect on animals, but thalidomide slipped through this test.” Halothane, he said, was a general anaesthetic used by doctors and dentists as a booster when other anaesthetics were proving too weak to keep patients sufficiently anaesthetised. A volatile liquid, it is inhaled through the nose. The reply from the Massachusetts Hospital said: “There

are a number of extensive studies going on in this country to try to determine whether it can be demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that halothane is seriously hepato-toxic in human beings and how often this may occur. "However, it has now been in extensive use for seven years on up to 10,000,000 patients without this toxicity becoming apparent till very recently.” It would appear, the reply said, that if toxicity did occur it must be rare. It would be a number of months at least before there was sufficient data to establish or refute the possibility of hepo-toxicity. “Until then it has seemed wise to us to continue the use of halothane only where it is especially indicated and not as routine.” Anaesthetists were planning to use the drug cautiously, said a recent report, and this is what the Hamilton dentist advocates for New Zealand.