OPERATIONS CARRIED OUT TO MUSIC

Evening Star, Issue 20364, 21 December 1929, Page 18

OPERATIONS CARRIED OUT TO MUSIC

PATIENTS ABLE IB LISTEN IN Patients may now listen in to wireless broadcast while they are undergoing a$ surgical operation. This striking innovation in modern surgery, which was described at the recent Pan-Pacific Surgical Congress in Honolulu, was commented on by Sir W. Arbuthnot Lane, the distinguished surgeon. _ . In certain major operations spinal antesthesia is given to the patient. A' hypodermic needle on the spine renders the trunk of the body insensible. The patient is fully conscious, but quite frco from pain during the operation. Ho can, however, sec what is happening and hear the surgical sounds, and the usual method of saving him from the upsetting effects of this consciousness is to give him sufficient gas to send him to sleep, or, if that would be dangerous, to put a silk handkerchief over his eyes and let the anaesthetist distract his attention by talking. PLEASANT DISTRACTION. The new method is described as being “ much preferable to the talking antesthetist.” Headphones are placed over the patient’s dtlrs, and he is able to listen-in until the operation is finished,' He thus not only has his mind distracted completely and pleasantly from the operation, but in addition his ears are closed to the sounds of the operating theatre The doctor at whose hospital the experiment has been carried out speaks highly of its success Sir W. Arbuthnot Lane was greatly interested when a ‘Daily Express’ representative described this American innovation to him. “I had never heard of it before,” he said, “but it seems to me to be an excellent plan, and 1 should like to see it tried over here. I am not operating at Guy’s Hospital any longer, so 1 could not suggest its introduction myself, but I feel sure that when surgeons in this country hear about it tbev will introduce it. ' l It really is the obvious solution of how to distract the patient’s attention, 1 -should think it would be pleasanter than either going to sleep or being talked to by the anesthetist. I should, bo most interested to see it tried here.”