Guide to anæsthetics for the student and general practitioner / by Thomas D. Luke ; with 43 illustrations.

  • Luke, Thomas D. (Thomas Davey)
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Guide to anæsthetics for the student and general practitioner / by Thomas D. Luke ; with 43 illustrations. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    that for nose and throat operations, associated witli severe lueinorrliage, for cases wliere the breathing is eniharrassed l)y anenrisni or tumour, or for prolonged abdominal operations, the administration of the amesthetic should be intrusted to those who have given more than ordinary time and attention to the subject. The satisfactory administration of aiiicsthetics in many cases of disease—c.cj., empyema, is fraught with risk. Safety to the patient and comfort to the operator can only be insured by long experience, caution and skill. It is cpiite impossible to suppose that all medical men can be educated to such a high pitch of excellence. They should, however, be enabled during their hospital career to attain a sufficient know- ledge to fit them to estimate the limit of their own capabilities, and to know when a given case is difficult or dangerous. “ In districts remote from large cities, it is the duty of every man bravely to encounter difficult and dangerous cases, and do bis best by tbem. “ If once the young practitioner grasps the fact that every case of anaesthesia is a study in itself, in the selection of the appropriate agent for safety and for the opeiutor’s com'enience, fully appreciating that every case has its peculiar risks and after dangers, he will continue to improve as years advance. At all events, his medical teachers will have done their duty ])y ecpiipping him as well as possible for one of the most important after duties of Ins professional life.” The Keeative Moktality under the various Ax.esthetics. The safest amesthetic of wliich we know at the present day is nitrous oxide, the death-rate of which is given by Ibixton as 1 in 100,000, but we can only regard this as a nominal death-rate, for it must be considerably less. AVe are safe in saying that this amesthetic has been administered on many million occasions, and only thirty-five deaths have been recorded during the past half centuiA. A\ e hud that the death-rate under the various amesthetics is as follows:—