Anaesthesia and high altitude: a history.

During an expedition to climb Everest in 1933, expedition doctor Raymond Greene administered an open-drop chloroform anaesthetic to a Tibetan patient at an altitude of more than 14,000 feet. The patient's subsequent apparent cardiopulmonary arrest has long been attributed to the effects of alti...

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Main Authors: Firth, P, Pattinson, K
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: 2008
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author Firth, P
Pattinson, K
author_facet Firth, P
Pattinson, K
author_sort Firth, P
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description During an expedition to climb Everest in 1933, expedition doctor Raymond Greene administered an open-drop chloroform anaesthetic to a Tibetan patient at an altitude of more than 14,000 feet. The patient's subsequent apparent cardiopulmonary arrest has long been attributed to the effects of altitude on anaesthetic delivery. However, anaesthetics can be safely administered at a wide variety of altitudes by adequately trained and experienced anaesthetists. The problems may have arisen from an inadequate depth of anaesthesia consequent to decreased chloroform vaporisation in a cold environment, Greene's concern about potential depression of ventilation and the contemporary lack of a precise approach to assessing depth of anaesthesia.
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spelling oxford-uuid:24c591e4-a5c7-4a41-ab0b-16f108c2fcc32022-03-26T11:51:53ZAnaesthesia and high altitude: a history.Journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:24c591e4-a5c7-4a41-ab0b-16f108c2fcc3EnglishSymplectic Elements at Oxford2008Firth, PPattinson, KDuring an expedition to climb Everest in 1933, expedition doctor Raymond Greene administered an open-drop chloroform anaesthetic to a Tibetan patient at an altitude of more than 14,000 feet. The patient's subsequent apparent cardiopulmonary arrest has long been attributed to the effects of altitude on anaesthetic delivery. However, anaesthetics can be safely administered at a wide variety of altitudes by adequately trained and experienced anaesthetists. The problems may have arisen from an inadequate depth of anaesthesia consequent to decreased chloroform vaporisation in a cold environment, Greene's concern about potential depression of ventilation and the contemporary lack of a precise approach to assessing depth of anaesthesia.
spellingShingle Firth, P
Pattinson, K
Anaesthesia and high altitude: a history.
title Anaesthesia and high altitude: a history.
title_full Anaesthesia and high altitude: a history.
title_fullStr Anaesthesia and high altitude: a history.
title_full_unstemmed Anaesthesia and high altitude: a history.
title_short Anaesthesia and high altitude: a history.
title_sort anaesthesia and high altitude a history
work_keys_str_mv AT firthp anaesthesiaandhighaltitudeahistory
AT pattinsonk anaesthesiaandhighaltitudeahistory