Jahrzehntelang war der Begriff „Ätherrausch“ gleichbedeutend mit einer kurzdauernden Narkose. Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts bezeichnete dann der Chirurg Paul Sudeck eine von ihm praktizierte
Narkosetechnik ebenfalls als Ätherrausch, welche im deutschsprachigen Raum zu einem bekannten und bis Ende der 1940er-Jahre weit verbreiteten Analgesieverfahren wurde. Vor dem Hintergrund
der ersten erfolgreichen Äthernarkose vor 175 Jahren am Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston soll an die Beschreibung des Ätherrausches erinnert werden.
Abstract
For decades, the term ether rush was synonymous with the practice of short-term anaesthesia, among patients and doctors. The term was first used shortly after the discovery of the
anaesthetic properties of ether by Hamburg-based physician Elias Salomon Nathan in an article about the newly discovered ether anaesthesia. Decades later, the surgeon Paul Sudeck, who also
worked in Hamburg, also described an anaesthetic technique he practiced as an ether rush and met with great approval from his surgical colleagues, as well as for his anaesthetic mask
developed for carrying out the ether rush and the anaesthetic dropper, specified for this purpose.
Sudeck did not want to be regarded as the inventor of the special anaesthetic technique and repeatedly pointed out that his procedure had already been described and applied before him, but
was forgotten again. Nevertheless, Sudeck’s ether rush remained a well-known, widespread analgesic method in German-speaking countries until the end of the 1940s, and it proved its worth
many times during the World War. After 1945, when ether lost its pre-dominant role as an inhalation anaesthetic and was replaced by other, new agents and short-acting i. v. administered
analgesics, the ether rush was also fell into oblivion and was no longer used.
Against the background of the first successfully performed ether anaesthesia on October 16th, 1846 – 175 years ago – at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, the description of the
ether rush should be recalled in this context.
Schlüsselwörter
Geschichte der Anästhesie - anästhesiologische Verfahren - Stadium analgeticum
Keywords
history of anaesthesia - anaesthetic techniques - Stadium analgeticum
