Word: spinal
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...root of the trouble is a difference of medical opinion. There are many anesthetics, each with its pros & cons, from which a surgeon may choose. For abdominal operations, for example, some surgeons prefer a spinal anesthetic. Other surgeons avoid spinals because they entail a somewhat greater risk of complications (e.g., occasional paralyses, persistent headaches and other late effects) than anesthetic gases. Many patients prefer the new rectal anesthetics because they leave none of the aftereffects which ether usually produces. Some doctors contend that nearly all the unpleasant effects of ether (vomiting, nausea, etc.) can be avoided if the anesthetist...
...Waldo Edwards and Robert Hingson, who developed it at the U.S. Marine Hospital (where wives of Coast Guardsmen have their babies) on Staten Island, N.Y. The anesthetic is continuous and localized in the pelvic region. A silver needle is inserted into the caudal area, just below the spinal column, where it remains throughout labor. The needle is connected with a flask of the anesthetic, two-thirds of an ounce of which is administered every 30 or 40 minutes. Longest labor during which the anesthetic has been given: 13 hours. The primary purpose of the new technique is to relieve...
...summer and fall), even though the disease "is not notably prevalent in a community." Probable connection between tonsillectomies and poliomyelitis: nerves injured by surgery are more susceptible to polio infection, so that the latent virus could travel readily from the injured throat nerves to the medulla oblongata, where the spinal cord enters the brain...
...dispose of an enemy sentry, "jump on his back, reach both arms around his neck and shove a foot against the back of his knee. The impact is guaranteed to double him up like a jackknife and if you twist at the same time you'll sever his spinal cord...
Until this discovery, doctors had to be satisfied with shadowy pictures of the brain made in complicated fashion: the spinal cord was tapped and all the fluid slowly drained out from the ventricles-five lakes in the center of the brain. Then air was blown up the cord or injected into the ventricles till they were filled with air and X-rays could be taken. Under this treatment patients have terrific headaches until new fluid seeps back into the brain...