OPERATIONS.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXVIII, Issue 10723, 22 October 1928, Page 9

OPERATIONS.

ARE SHOCKS DUE TO ANAESTHETICS?

AUCKLAND SURGEONS OPINIONS.

There is no hard and far.fc rule about the use of anaesthetics, local and general, according to Auckland surgeons, who commented on the theory of - an American. Dr. Hubert Neale. According to a cable message, Dr. Neale- holds that the shock

a patient suffers in a major operation is due more to the anaesthetic than to the operation itself. To prove Iris theory ho operated on himself for appendicitis with only a local anaesthetic and came through it well, well.

“I. have seen surgeons operate on themselves, , hut never sit up and open up their abdomens,” commented one Auckland surgeon. “It would certainly be a difficult operation.”

NOT FOR NERVOUS

Another surgeon said, “There is a certain amount of truth in the statement, hub all operations cannot be carried out with only a local anaesthetic. With a very muscular mail or a nervous person the local would not give sufficient relaxation. 'Nervous and neurotic patients would often imagine they were feeling pain with a local, when they really could feel nothing!” , He explained that the use of local or general anaesthetics depended on the preference of the surgeon. Some surgeons preferred and some tried to avoid locals. The local anaesthetic took longer to administer and, about 15 or 20 minutes had to elapse afterwards before the operation could start, so that for emergency work chloroform or ether was the handiest, iest.

Summing up, he sipd that the choice of anaesthetic depended oir, (1) the condition of the patient, (2) the' site or organ of the operation, and (3) the length and severity of the operation. Local a-uaes-' theti-o did not do away with shock. Often in amputation a patient’s mental anxiety was quietened with morphia and then a local was used. “Much can be said on both .sides,” ho continued, “hut there cam bo no sweeping assertion.” ACCORDING TO THEORIES. Appendicitis operations with the use of local anaesthetics have been carried out in Auckland for the last--10 years, another surgeon explained 1 , He. often adopted the local whom a patient was suffering from a cougff which would break open the wound. The method was to inject a synthetic anaesthetic so as to block the line of nerves, and to cause all feeling to leave the part to he operated upon.' Individual surgeons acted according to their theories. “To say that shock is due entirely to the anaesthetic is quite wrong.” ho said. “Many feature's of the operation, the fright, damage to tissue, and loss of blood, apart from the pain, all go to produce shock,” He pointed out that while Va general anaesthetic put the patient _ to sleep., the brain was still recording' the damage of the operation. The local cut off the part from all contact with, the brain until . after Hie operation!