The topic may be approached by defining the concept of anaesthesia, a term introduced by Oliver Wendell Holmes for defining the elimination of surgical pain, characterised by immobility, eliminating pain, amnesia and lack of consciousness, effects provoked by using anaesthetic agents reversibly affecting different areas of the central nervous system (CNS). These conditions were successfully met...

R. G. Wise, A. Jolly, C. J. Evans, K. Murphy, F. Zelaya, D. Lythgoe, K. Pattinson, and J. E. Hall CUBRIC, School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom, Department of Anaesthetics and Intensive Care Medicine, School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom, Centre for Neuroimaging Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College, London, United Kingdom, Nuff...

If there is a need for training in general anaesthesia I believe it must be because of frequent administration of general anaesthesia by the dentist. Observation suggests to me that today very few dentists in South Africa ad­ minister general anaesthetics. General anaesthetics in South African dental practice are usually administered either by specialist anaesthetists or by general medical prac...

In the original article, under the "Declaration of Interests" section, the authors stated "none declared" since they had no direct interest in the use of local anaesthetics to treat cancer (the focus of the article being the beneficial use of local anaesthetics in cancer surgery). However, they do have a pending patent on blockers that specifically target the persistent current component of vol...

We have shown previously that inhalation anaesthetics inhibit dopamine transport in rat synaptosomes. In order to determine if this inhibition is associated with occupancy of the cocaine site, we examined binding of [3H] (2 beta-carbomethoxy-3 beta-(4-fluorophenyl)-tropane) (3H-CFT) in the presence of halothane or isoflurane 0.01-5 mmol litre-1 in rat brain synaptosomes. Both anaesthetics inhib...

Sir,?The article by Lieut-Colonel Cox in the August issue of the Indian Medical Gazette emphasizing the dangers of chloroform anaesthesia deserves "wide publicity in this country where the subject of anaesthetics and their administration appears to be badly neglected in the medical curriculum. Unlike many other highly necessary reforms, improvement in this branch of medicine does not necessitat...

The effects of local, i.v. and volatile anaesthetic agents on locomotion of human blood leucocytes were studied in vitro. Blood neutrohpils and monocytes and PHA-activated lymphocytes were allowed to migrate in filters towards standard chemotactic agents and the effect of adding anaesthetic agents to the system was measured. The results showed that locomotion of all cell types was depressed rev...