A NEW ANAESTHETIC

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 286, 29 August 1931, Page 23

A NEW ANAESTHETIC

Gentle Guide Through Operations

How avertin, the anaesthetic from Germany, la used was described by a London 'authority to the “Sunday Dispatch,’’ “Its principal virtue Is the gentleness with which it prepares a patient for an operation, and the slow and thorough way in which it allows him to recover afterwards,” he said. “In many cases it is not until after two days that a patient realises he has undergone an operation! “The patient is weighed, and the dose is made up strictly in accordance with the weight. Half an hour before the time of the operation, the drug is administered and the patient gradually falls asleep. “The operation isj. then performed—but the patient sleeps on blissfully for at least another twelve hours. “He awakens Slowly, and it takes two, or perhaps three, days for him to become really wide-awake. “During the Important period after

the operation when his progress might otherwise be seriously retarded by the thoughts of what has been happening to him he is sleeping like a child.” The anaesthetic has been the subject of intensive research and experiment in the laboratories of Germany for the past few years, and one prominent London hospital has been using it for six months. Avertin’s existence was only made known to the general public recently when at a Beading inquest it was revealed that the drug had been used in a case of tetanus. “It is a wonderful anaesthetic for nervous people,” said a well-known London specialist. “Those who have bad operations performed upon them with avertin as the medium are going about extolling it for all they are worth.” j Only anaesthetists who have made a thorough Study’ of the drug are at present, allowed to use it.