Surgery pre 1845 and Anaesthetics

Question 1

What does Amputation mean?

Answer 1

The cutting off of a limb

Question 2

What is an anaesthetic?

Answer 2

A substance that affects your nervous system so that you are less aware of pain.

Question 3

What is a tourniquet?

Answer 3

Something that is tied around a part of the body to put pressure on a blood vessel and stop the loss of blood.

Question 4

What was the most common type of surgical procedure in the early 19th century?

Answer 4

Amputation

Question 5

What were the problems with early operations?

Answer 5

Blood loss, pain, infection

Question 6

What was used to ease pain in early operations?

Answer 6

Alcohol, opium

Question 7

Why did operations need to be quick?

Answer 7

Because there were no anaesthetics!

Question 8

When did Humphrey Davy discover Nitrous Oxide?

Answer 8

1799

Question 9

What did Humphrey Davy discover?

Answer 9

That Nitrous Oxide made you less aware of pain

Laughing gas

Question 10

What did Horace Wells do?

Answer 10

Used Nitrous Oxide to extract teeth in USA

Question 11

When did Horace Wells do his experiments?

Answer 11

1844- 1845

Question 12

Who discovered that Ether could be used as an anaesthetic?

Answer 12

William Morton

Question 13

What were the main problems with using Ether?

Answer 13

Patients would vomit
It irritated the lungs which would make patients cough
Highly flammable
Patients in very deep sleep- could last for days
Carried in heavy bottles- difficult for surgeons to transport

Question 14

How did James Simpson discover Chloroform could be used as an anaesthetic?

Answer 14

Inhaled various vapours with his friends to see if they could find a better anaesthetic than Ether

Question 15

Who discovered Chloroform could be used as an anaesthetic?

Answer 15

James Simpson

Question 16

When was Chloroform first used in an operation?

Answer 16

1847

Question 17

Which public figure used Chloroform during the birth of her eighth child?

Answer 17

Queen Victoria

Question 18

When did Queen Victoria use Chloroform?

Answer 18

1853

Question 19

What was the name of the 14 year old patient who died from inhaling too much Chloroform?

Answer 19

Hannah Greener

Question 20

What were the problems with Chloroform?

Answer 20

Young, fit patients were dying after inhaling too much of it

Question 21

Who developed an inhaler to regulate doses of Chloroform?

Answer 21

John Snow

Question 22

When was the inhaler for Chloroform invented?

Answer 22

1848

Question 23

Why did some people oppose the introduction of anaesthetics?

Answer 23

Believed patients should feel pain as part of God’s plan (particularly women in child birth!)
Distrusted them as they were new and they did not fully understand their effects
Some doctors thought it would be easier for patients to die if they were not awake and struggling
Increase in death rates after anaesthetics were introduced

Question 24

When was it discovered that cocaine could be used as a local anaesthetic?

Answer 24

1884