In mothers nursed in a semi-recumbent position, arterial oxygen tension was measured at the beginning and END OF AN an intermittent period of inhalation, Lasting for six contractions, during the first stage of labour. Ten mothers had methoxyflurane 0.35 per cent and air, followed by methoxyflurane 0.35 per cent with approximately 50 per cent oxygen. Another 10 mothers had 50 per cent nitrous ox...

IT was Smith & Hollis at East Grinstead in 1966 who first described in the British literature the use of neuroleptanalgesia for the dressing of burns. They had considerable success with the method but, as might be expected, there was some respiratory depression in a number of cases if the opiate was given in sufficient dosage to provide full analgesia. We repeated this work in Bristol in a seri...

We have studied, in six normal subjects, the effect of nitrous oxide sedation on the ventilatory pattern and oxygen saturation using pulse oximetry (Sp0J after hyperventilation to an endtidal carbon dioxide partial pressure (PE'COJ °f 3 kPa. This value of P?Co2 was shown to be less than the apnoeic threshold of all these subjects when their ventilation vs P f COi response curves were plotted. A...

In the recent investigation of Masoumi et al. [1], the intravenous association of midazolam and fentanyl was compared to inhaled nitrous oxide in the synchronized cardioversion. This study is very important since several drug schemes have been used for anesthesia during electrical cardioversion, with different mechanism of action, duration, and side effects, but, until now, no technique demonst...

pathologists have experience of unexpectedly low carboxyhaemoglobin saturation levels in fatal carbon-monoxide poisoning. The textbooks give 60% as the minimum lethal concentration for healthy subjects. Why then should apparently fit persons, below the age of 70, die with saturation levels below 50% ? A series of 300 included 24 such cases, with values from 40 to 490o (palladium chloride analys...