Carbon-Tetrachloride Anesthesia? Edmund Andrews ’s Efforts before Oxygenating Nitrous Oxide

Chicago surgeon Edmund Andrews is best known for encouraging in 1868 the oxygenation of nitrous oxide anesthetics. However, 1 yr earlier, Dr. Andrews had spent time observing CCl4 or carbon tetrachloride anesthesia in London hospitals. On returning to Chicago, Dr. Andrews noted that the tetrachloride of carbon promised “freedom from nauseating effects,” such as those caused by ether. However, when Dr. Andrews’s friend, Dr. Sherman, administered the promising new agent to their patient in Chicago, the patient’s “pulse and respiration both suddenly ceased.” An unnerved Dr. Andrews determined that he hims elf would “not venture on the use of the article again, unless very extensive experience by others demonstrates its safety.” (Copyright © the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology.)
Source: Anesthesiology - Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: research