MATERNITY CASES

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 February 1935, Page 9

MATERNITY CASES

GAS AND AIR TREATMENT.

LONDON, January' 5.

In the current issue of “The British Medical Journal” there are further reports upon the use of the new “gas and air” method for the relief of pain in maternity cases. The important point about the new reports, dealing with approximately one year’s work at the Wellhouse Hospital, Barnet, and concerning 250 patients is that the nursing staff has easily been trained to use the Minnitt apparatus, and nurses now administer the gas and air to patients without the constant presence of a medical man or woman at the bedside. According to the present rules of the Central Midwives Board, there must be medical supervision when a nurse or midwife administers any form of anaesthesia, but it is obvious that in the new method medical supervision can be very much reduced. It will be recalled that the principle of the new apparatus is a bag contained in a metal drum, into which “gas” flows as long as the patient is inhaling, being automatically shut off when the inhalation ceases. The final mixture breathed in contains about one-third of nitrousoxide gas (“laughing gas”). Careful experiments made at Liverpool seem to demonstrate the complete harmlessness of the method. The main drawbacks in its extensive use are the weight of the apparatus, which is, however, portable, and only “gas” cylinders need be carried, not oxygen cylinders as well, and the cost. In the Wcllhouse Hospital work the cost per patient for gas was about two shillings per patient, \\hile the initial cost of the complete machine in a carrying case is 17 guineas. This might be greatly reduced if there was a widespread demand for the apparatus. ~ , , Such a demand might well be obtained if all nurses and midwives could be trained in its use.