the problem with pain

• what was surgery like in the 1800s?

  very dangerous

  low survival rate

  surgeons couldn't control pain
• why did so many people die during surgery in the 1800s?

  blood loss

  infection

  painful-shock caused death
• what pain relief was used in the early nineteenth century?

  alcohol

  opium -difficult to get dose right

  hashish
• what 3 important anaesthetics were developed in the nineteenth century?

  chloroform

  nitrous oxide

  ether
• what is nitrous oxide

  laughing gas
• who discover nitrous oxide? and when?

  Humphrey David in 1800
• what is ether?


  anaesthetic
• who discovered ether? and when?

  first used successfully in Britain by Robert Liston

  1846
• why wasn't ether widely used?

  caused vomiting

  highly flammable
• what is chloroform?


  A safe and effective anaesthetic
• who was the first dr to use chloroform medically? and when?

  james Simpson

  1847
• why did people oppose to chloroform?

  difficult to get dosage right-Hannah greener overdosed on it during toenail surgery

  
  

  religious objections

  
  

  some army drs believed soldiers should feel pain
• how were objections for chloroform overcome?

  queen Victoria used it in the birth of her 8th child

  made it fashionable and acceptable
• why was chloroform use dangerous?

  -still high death rate from infections

  -surgeons operating longer/deeper taking infections further in body

  -solved pain problem but not blood loss/infection