Liquor made quicker: alcohol as a synthetic reagent for molecules in anesthesia.

Abstract

Ethanol was an early anesthetic, and chemists transformed it into better ones. Hypnotic/anesthetic/analgesic molecules prepared from ethanol include barbiturates, benzocaine, chloral hydrate, chloroform, diethyl ether, ethyl chloride, ethylene, etomidate, meperidine, paraldehyde, phenacetin, procaine, tribromoethanol, and urethane.

Ethanol was sometimes mixed deliberately with the other anesthetics, and John Snow's inhaled amylene came from the "fusel oil" fraction of rotgut whisky.

Full Text

• DOI - Journal of Clinical Anesthesia (DOI)
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Subjects

• Anesthesiology
• Anesthetics
• Barbiturates
• Benzocaine
• Central Nervous System Depressants
• Chloroform
• Ethanol
• History, 18th Century
• History, 19th Century
• History, 20th Century

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Authors

• Keith Fragoza
• Theodore A Alston

Publication date

2008-12-01

Journal

Journal topics

• Anesthesiology

Language

Eng.

Copyright

Journal of Clinical Anesthesia

Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA.

Release reference

J Clin Anesth. 2008 Nov;20(7):556-9

Related books

• Books of Anesthesiology
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• Books of Chloroform
• Books of Ethanol
• Books of History, 18th Century
• Books of History, 19th Century
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