On the administration of nitrous oxide and oxygen for inducing anaesthesia / by James Paton Boyd, M.B., F.F.P.S.G., Assistant Physician to the Glasgow Royal Infirmary.

  • Boyd, James Paton, -1933.
Date:
[1899]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the administration of nitrous oxide and oxygen for inducing anaesthesia / by James Paton Boyd, M.B., F.F.P.S.G., Assistant Physician to the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    For many other minor surgical procedures the combined gases are eminently suitable. One could give a list of cases in which it may be employed, but that is unnecessary. Among the more common may be mentioned bending of stiff joints, opening superficial and deep abscesses, passing catheters, applying the actual cautery, forcibly dilating the anterior nasal passages, and setting fractures. Its advantage in cases where the operation is not about the mouth is apparent, for the inhalation of the gases is gone on with till the operation is completed—some operations requiring an anaesthesia of say five minutes or so can in this way be readily performed. It is undoubtedly difficult to regulate the percentage of oxygen, but in the event of any undue lividity from insufficient oxygen the removal of the face piece now and again causes the lividity to disappear. The difficulty which can only be over- come by experience is the giving too much or too little oxygen, for if the former results then we have excitement manifested by screaming and struggling, whereas if too little oxygen be given then lividity and clonic spasms may ensue. Still, in operations limited in their duration these difficulties are com- paratively rarely encountered, and a little practice would prevent their occurrence. 2. For Long or comparatively Long Operations.—Mr. Bellamy Gardner, of London, was the first to employ gas and oxygen for prolonged periods, and in the Lancet for June 12, 1897, published cases in which successful anaesthesia was maintained for over fifteen minutes, thus allowing of major operations being performed. Since then, Mr. H. Patterson, of St. Bartho- lomew’s Hospital, has described cases in which anaesthesia was kept up for nearly an hour, permitting amputations of limbs and excisions of joints to be performed. The longest period I have ever given it for was thirty-five minutes in a case of tumour of the breast excised by Dr. Rutherfurd. Anaesthesia was readily effected and maintained without difficulty, and within a comparatively short time after the withdrawal of the face piece consciousness returned. No sickness followed. I cannot, however, believe that nitrous oxide and oxygen will ever be generally employed for long operations. Surgeons as