degrees of anaesthesia are described, through which a patient passes from unconsciousness to (in the last resort) death:—
(1) A state of disordered consciousness, with analgesia; the patient’s ideas are confused, the special senses are disturbed, and though the application of stimuli to the skin causes no mental impression, yet in response to them there may be what look like purposeful movements.
(2) In the second stage there is complete loss of consciousness, and though the reflexes persist, the movements in response to the stimuli are purposeless. The muscles generally act strongly.
(3) The stage of surgical anaesthesia; there is a general muscular relaxation, with the loss of many of the reflexes, i.e. an operation may be performed without evoking any movement on the part of the patient, while the vital reflexes and the vital centres in the medulla are still active, and the heart muscle is not paralysed.
(4) Finally, the stage of paralysis of the medulla, when the respiratory and circulatory centres are paralysed, and the heart muscle itself is poisoned and death ensues.
The aim of the anaesthetist is to keep the patient in the third degree of anaesthesia, thus avoiding the movements of the second and the dangers of the fourth; he therefore keeps the patient under close observation, and by watching the respiration, pulse and facial aspect, is able to judge the condition of the respiration and circulation. He has a further guide in the lid-reflex, i.e. the movement of the eyelid when the globe is touched; this and the size of the pupil tell him to what extent the central nervous system is depressed and complete the information he requires.
It will have been observed that the administration of the above drugs is by inhalation, and has to be continued throughout the operation, the reason being that all the drugs are as rapidly excreted as they are absorbed, especially by the lungs, and therefore no other method would be of any avail. That there are drugs which are sufficiently slowly eliminated to allow of an operation being performed between the moment of induction and that of recovery, cannot be doubted, and their discovery and use can only be a matter of time. Even at the present time there is one, urethane, which, if injected with a hypodermic needle, soon produces a profound general anaesthesia. It has only been used on the lower animals, as its depressing effect on the respiratory centre contra-indicates its use in human beings.
Local Anaesthesia.—Much attention has recently been devoted to the discovery of methods by which the insensibility may be confined to the area of operation and the loss of consciousness avoided. Such a procedure has been common for many years for small operations, but it is only lately that it has been successfully applied to the severer ones. It is very doubtful whether local anaesthesia will ever replace general in the latter class. Though the preliminary starvation is avoided, and the patient has the shock of operation alone to recover from, without the cardiac depression resulting from the anaesthetic during the operation, the patient, unless of a very apathetic temperament, is in that state of severe nervous strain, when any unexpected movement or remark, or sight of a soiled instrument, may produce an alarming or fatal syncope. The earliest local anaesthetic was cold, produced by a mixture of ice and salt. In place of this cumbersome method, the skin is now frozen by means of a fine spray of ether or ethyl chloride directed upon it. The spraying is discontinued when the skin becomes white, and it is then allowed to regain its colour. The moment this occurs the incision is made and will be quite painless. The recovery, like that from any other frost-bite, is very painful, and the time during which an operation can be done is very short; consequently this method has been very largely superseded by the use of drugs. The drugs chiefly used are cocaine and its derivatives. Cocaine has by far the highest anaesthetic properties; it is, however, in certain individuals a most powerful cardiac depressant and has caused numerous fatalities, and further, it cannot be sterilized by heat, as it undergoes decomposition. Eucaine has now largely taken its place, though its anaesthetic properties are less; it is, however, less toxic, and can be sterilized by heat. In combination with these drugs there is usually given some of the extract of the suprarenal body of the sheep; this substance increases and prolongs the anaesthetic effect by constricting the blood-vessels, the result of which is to reduce the haemorrhage, and also to prevent the too rapid absorption of the drug into the general system, confining it to the area of operation.
The chief methods of bringing about local anaesthesia are as follows:—
(1) Painting or spraying a solution of the drugs on to the area on which it is proposed to operate.
(2) Injection by means of a needle of the solution into the skin and the deeper structures.
(3) Spinal analgesia. The method of inducing analgesia by injecting solutions into the sheath surrounding the spinal cord was devised by Bier in 1898, and for the purpose he employed a solution of cocaine. It was found, however, that there was considerable danger with this drug, so the method was not adopted to any great extent, until Fourneau discovered stovaine in 1904.
The principle involved in spinal anaesthesia is this: that a substance in solution is injected into the sac containing the spinal cord in the lumbar region. The spinal cord as such ends at the level of the first lumbar vertebra in a leash of nerves termed the cauda equina. When giving an injection there is little danger of injuring these nerves because in this situation there is a space filled with fluid between the wall of the sac and the nerves. The substances injected, by virtue of their specific action on nervous tissues, cause loss of painful sensations in the lower limbs and for a variable distance up the trunk. It has been found that the specific gravity of the solution injected has some influence on the height to which the analgesia will extend up the trunk, and this distance can also be controlled by altering the position of the patient. The canal in which the cord is situated is not a straight tube, but is curved backwards in the sacral and upper dorsal regions, and forwards in the lower dorsal and lumbar regions. Therefore with the patient lying on his back, any solution injected that has a greater specific gravity than that of the cerebrospinal fluid which bathes the cord, tends to gravitate towards the sacral and upper dorsal regions; and, conversely, any solution of lower specific gravity than that of the cerebrospinal fluid tends to rise and produce analgesia at a still higher level. In this way the situation of the fluid producing analgesia can be controlled to some extent. It has been found that a very serious danger exists if the solution passes up to the brain, or even if it passes higher than the sixth cervical nerve. It is important that the osmotic pressure of the solutions employed should be as nearly as possible that of the cerebrospinal fluid, that is to say, the nearer the solution is isotonic with the cerebrospinal fluid, the better will be the analgesia, and the less will be the harmful effects. At present it has not been found possible to separate in any of the substances employed the radicle which produces motor effects from that which blocks the advent of sensory stimuli. Although both effects last only a short time there seems to be a certain risk due to the temporary muscular paralysis, and in a patient with a tendency to bronchitis this is a matter of considerable moment.
The fluid is injected in the following manner. A puncture is made with a special trocar and canula in the lumbar region between the second and third or third and fourth lumbar spines. The sheath of the sac having been entered, as is evidenced by the loss of resistance to the point of the trocar, and by the fact that cerebrospinal fluid escapes when the trocar is withdrawn, the dose of the fluid selected is injected through the canula, which is then withdrawn. An important point is that the operation must be absolutely aseptic; great care is taken to sterilize thoroughly the instruments, site of operation and fluid used. The patient is placed in that position which will yield the best and safest analgesia for the operation; it is essential, however, that the patient’s head be raised well above the level of the spine. The injection is followed very quickly, generally within three to five minutes, by the production of analgesia, which lasts for a period varying from half an hour to two hours. Various substances have
