GUIDE FOR SURGEONS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XX, Issue 192, 4 August 1930, Page 5

GUIDE FOR SURGEONS

HEART-BEAT CLOCK FOR OPERATIONS. LESSENING THE RISK OF DEATH An instrument which, it is claimed, will substantially decrease the number of deaths during operations has been invented by two medical research workers who hope to demonstrate it at the next meeting of the British Medical Association. (States a London exchange). Deaths during anaesthesia occur almost invariably through the suddenness of the patient's collapse and the preoccupation of the surgeon with the technique of the operation. It is claimed that the new instrument gives instant warning to the operating surgeon of heart failure so that prompt emergency measures may be taken to reduce shock and revive the the heart.

“When a patient is under an anaesthetic the only indication the surgeon has of his condition is convoyed by signals from the anesthetist, whose only guide is to feel the pulse,’’ a prominent surgeon explained. “The majority of deaths under chloroform take place before the operating surgeon is even aware that anything is wrong, •’ The cardigraph consists of a set of electrodes attached to the body of the patient. The heart’s impluses pass through an amplifier and a transformer which reproduce the sounds much louder than they are heard through a stethoscope. The surgeon cannot fail to hear the “thumps.”

It also leaves the anaesthetist entirely free to attend to the administration of the anaesthetic.