Abstract
This is a fascinating collection of nine international papers relating to various amazing and unusual aspects of anaesthesia beyond the operating theatre and is written by world authorities. The paper on high altitude and hypoxia is an excellent summary of this vast topic, including the more recent Caudwell Xtreme Everest expedition in 2007 which has furthered our knowledge and published an amazing amount of research on the topic.
I have long been fascinated by the incredibly resourceful use of anaesthesia in prisoners of war (POW), and the paper relating to anaesthesia, surgery and resuscitation in the Far East POW camps from 1942 to 1945 makes for grim reading, but one can only have admiration for what was achieved. The professionalism and resourcefulness of POW doctors to provide anaesthesia and surgery to their fellow POWs is amazing. Using cocaine tablets for spinal anaesthesia with bamboo needles and guessing the resultant concentration and baricity and then managing the complications is simply admirable. Another example was making ether from rice alcohol and stolen sulphuric acid from truck batteries, and all of this reported back to the medical journals immediately after the war.
Anaesthesia on the seventh continent—Antarctica—is well researched and is the ultimate example of ‘remote anaesthesia’, covering from the Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration with 17 different voyages of exploration which mostly carried a doctor. This includes Shackleton and his crew on the Endurance to the ongoing challenges that exist in terms of evacuation and performing surgery in the 1950s and which continue to the current day.
Other papers include a comprehensive history of anaesthesia patient safety and a history of anaesthesia simulation, both of which are written by world experts and give a superb coverage of each topic. There is also a distinctly Australian flavour with a history of aeromedical retrieval in Australia, veterinary anaesthesia at Melbourne Zoo and anaesthesia involvement in the popular Australian sport of ocean swimming!
As the editors state, this book is not a traditional history of anaesthesia but one that is of great interest and which will appeal even to the occasional historian. I recommend it.