Comments on: nitrous oxide – a laughing matter?

By: Dr Tom Bassindale

Dr Tom Bassindale — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 13:12:04 +0000

Thanks very much for your kind comments Mick. I think I may change my name to Dr Brilliant. Thanks also for some more useful information and references too, I will look up the Brilliant paper. It seems there is a very well read readership here around anaesthetics!
regards
Tom

By: Mick Allen

Mick Allen — Sun, 08 Dec 2013 08:27:01 +0000

Steve W passed your link on to me. A very useful resource for a clinician and struggling academic wannabe. Chronic misuse of nitrous oxide, and its consequences, by dentists in the US has been documented (Layzer,R. Myeloneuropathy after prolonged use of nitrous oxide. Lancet 1978; 2: 1227) and also as a recreational drug way back in 1970 by the wonderfully named Dr Brilliant (Brilliant J. Nitrous Oxide as a psychedelic drug. New England Journal of Medicine 1970; 283: 1522.) There is a good body of evidence for its haematological side effects even after short exposures. A drop in circulated neutrophils can be demonstrated 24 hours after inhaling nitrous oxide for one hour. It is also very addictive…just ask poor Horace Wells who first demonstrated its use in Dentistry (a group of you may need to hold hands around a table to do this!).

By: Kate Storey-Whyte

Kate Storey-Whyte — Wed, 23 Oct 2013 08:51:22 +0000

Well they weren’t before we started on them …

By: Dr Tom Bassindale

Dr Tom Bassindale — Tue, 22 Oct 2013 21:53:17 +0000

In reply to Kate Storey-Whyte. That's very funny, were you treating hyenas at the time? Thanks, Tom

By: Kate Storey-Whyte

Kate Storey-Whyte — Tue, 22 Oct 2013 21:37:59 +0000

I remember a very interesting evening many lives ago when I worked as a vet anaesthetist – the machine was leaking. All animals and staff survived happily (very happily!).

By: Dr Tom Bassindale

Dr Tom Bassindale — Fri, 20 Sep 2013 19:05:18 +0000

In reply to steve. Remind me not to invite you and Rhys over for a dinner party on the same evening, things could get messy!

By: steve

steve — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 22:36:24 +0000

We obviously know to much about inhalable recreational drugs. Kyle Walker was just born 150ish years too late as everyone respectable was at it then!

By: Dr Tom Bassindale

Dr Tom Bassindale — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 21:35:27 +0000

In reply to Rhys. Hi Rhys, thanks for another great comment! Those parties of Simpson must have been very lively. Actually lively may not be the right word, deathly?? It would have been fun to observe them though. Cheers. Tom

By: Rhys

Rhys — Thu, 12 Sep 2013 20:20:12 +0000

Nitrous oxide was one of, if not the first ‘anaesthetic’ in use and gained wide acceptance in the US but not in the UK at the time… In the UK ether was used instead and many physicians in Europe started experimenting with other inhalational agents – apparently in Edinburgh during the mid 1840’s Simpson (who is credited with the discovery of chloroform as an anaesthetic) used to invite people around for dinner parties and then encourage them to sniff directly from bottles of various chemicals in order to study the effects! When his party goers passed out with the use of chloroform he rapidly introduced it as an anaesthetic using it the next day! Unfortunately because chloroform is far more toxic than nitrous oxide it’s use in the UK led to a disproportionately high level of anaesthetic related deaths due to cardiac toxicity…. This was termed “sudden sniffers death” and quickly became a recognised method of suicide! Perhaps Simpson should also be credited as one of the first recreational users of inhalational drugs!

By: Dr Tom Bassindale

Dr Tom Bassindale — Thu, 12 Sep 2013 09:41:49 +0000

In reply to Mrs Moriarty. I was disappointed not to be offered it in childbirth, apparently I didn't need it. They did have to wrestle it off me in the hospital with my ankle!