The Earliest-Known Extant Motion Picture of Anesthesia in the World was Filmed in Buenos Aires.

This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. In 1899 at the old " Hospital de Clínicas " in Buenos Aires (Figure 1), the French cameraman Eugenio Py (1859-1924; founding pioneer of Argentine cinema) filmed a surgical procedure performed by Argentine surgeon Professor Alejandro Posadas (1870 –1902; thoracic surgeon) (Figure 2) to extirpate a lung hydatid cyst on a male patient (Video). The medical student Viale was the Posada' assistant. Elgé, the camera used to film the event, was imported to Buenos Aires from France in 1897, two years after the Elgé was invention by the Lumière brothers The film shows Posadas operating and the Argentine medical student Buenos Aires, Argentina) (Figure 3) administering anesthesia, holding in his right hand a bottle from which he sporadically drops a drug to an anesthetic mask (Figure 4). It is likely that anesthesia was performed with chloroform and hand mask " chloroform cone", according to the consultation conducted with George Bause, MD, MPH (Figure 5). This handmade mask was widely used in the countries of the New World. At this time period in the Americas, young surgical house officers and ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT medical students were expected to be able to fold their own cones, from a variety of textiles, around a stiff paper or cardboard conical shell. The movie was made four years after the invention of motion pictures by ,the French bothers August Marie Louis Lumière (1862-1954) and Louse Lumière (1864-1948). The Lumière brothers are recognized as the first filmmakers in history, producing Sortie de l'usine Lumière de Lyon in 1895. The 46 second film showed workers leaving the Lumière factory. In 1884 or 1885, Edison Manufacturing Company produced a film with multiple titles including In the Dentist's Chair or Dr. Colton or Dentist Scene. The film portrays Gardner Quincy Colton using nitrous oxide on a dental patient. There are no know copies of this film. The film libraries in France and Belgium have confirmed that the film of Professor Alejandro Posadas performing surgery …