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On the Toxicity of Halothane

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Anaesthesia and Pharmaceutics

Part of the book series: Boerhaave Series for Postgraduate Medical Education ((BSPM,volume 7))

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Abstract

The history of anaesthesia contains many instances of strongly held beliefs which have subsequently not been substantiated. For example, many children died during anaesthesia because the particular difficulties associated with this age group were not appreciated and death was attributed to a condition named ‘status lymphaticus’ (1); it is clear now that no such condition exists. Similarly for many years it was argued that spinal anaesthesia led to irreversible damage to nerve tissue; this is now known to be avoidable (2). Also it was alleged that the administration of a general anaesthetic to an elderly person frequently led to irreversible central nervous system damage; this has now been refuted (3).

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Authors
  1. B. R. Simpson
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  2. L. Strunin
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  3. B. Walton
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anaesthesiology, University Hospital, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Joh. Spierdijk M.D.

  2. Department of Anaesthetics, Westminster Hospital, London, UK

    S. A. Feldman M. D.

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© 1972 Leiden University Press, Leiden, The Netherlands

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Simpson, B.R., Strunin, L., Walton, B. (1972). On the Toxicity of Halothane. In: Spierdijk, J., Feldman, S.A. (eds) Anaesthesia and Pharmaceutics. Boerhaave Series for Postgraduate Medical Education, vol 7. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-2924-7_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-2924-7_11

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-2926-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-010-2924-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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