THE NEWEST SURGICAL DISCOVERY.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXV, Issue 74, 30 March 1901, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE NEWEST SURGICAL DISCOVERY.

;! The latest surgical discovery enables •he painless performance of critical operations upon a conscious subject."

• San Francisco Chronicle,' Octo-

ber, 1900

Within the last few months a most interesting discovery has been made —one that is destined in all probability, to revolutionise surgery, atleast that part which relates toar.£e-s----iesia. A person hnd akg amputated at the thigh painlessly without iaking cither chloroform or ether; he was conscious throughout, and actually assistod the surgeon to remove the diseased limb. Just be.fi.re the operation a few drops of weak solution of i cocaine had been injected iuto the j spinal canal. This discovery of a method of producing anas^thesia without loss oi' consciousness is a wisiinct advance in science, and ot;e which will be hailed with delight by a growing class of offerers who dread 'the anas thetic and its attendant dangers more than they do the operation itself.

"": The'• patisni(_j.3 cleansed a;;d pre pared in the usual way. Wh><.n brought info the op?nVti'Jrg tooiii he.. is placed in an upright p>?itior, .-itting on Ibe idge of the operating table, while the back is bared over the fourth lumb-.r vertebra. The area of skin Covering this region is rendered insensible to pain by means of chloride of ethyl, and a hollow, slender needle i=i pissed into the .sp;nalcanal. 'Through this a. sterilised -solution of cocaine i.s.ii.jested, the patient kaui.ng well fcr.>vard to spread the vertebras as far-"apart as possible. The nerve roots are so affected by this anserhetic that any operation upon Iho-lower half of the trunk or the low^r Jimbs may be performed painlessly, Already operations upon tbe liver, in'es'incs, and legs have b'on done successfully, the influence of rhe drug lasting considerably over an hour.

Tbe first two ca--es opera'ed upon under spinal c/fcainisation consUte.l of tbe removal of a vein of the leg and skin graf ing, in bot-h -<;f which the pain without anaj-jtbrsia would ha practically unendurable. This month five more were addtcl to ihe li•*<■•, which number included operations upon several of tbe internal orgnns. In all of these cases pain sensation returned to the arreielh ' t: sed parts within two hour?, and the pul^e and respiration were by that time at their normal state, Tbe only untoward pympioms th is far no'iced is^ a moderate degree of nausea, with pos-ib'e vomiting after completion of f h<3 operation. Whether 'his is due;to the effect up >n the system of the o cuine injieted or of the unusual sight of wi.tmssing an operation upon oneself has not yet been determined.;-

Thus far surgeons have not dared to make cocaine inj c:ijns into the upper pait of ihe spinal canal, lestthe result might prove: disastrous. This ■js^ probably only a matter of timo. When it can be done with safety, the entire body will 113 open to eurgical nnnipuWion without tbe unpleasant symptoms of the loss of consciousness incident to chloroform -and other inhalation. — Francis R. Williams, M.D., in the ' ILrald of Health.'