Medical Discovery News, July 11, 2009
This week's radio broadcast focused on the history of anesthesia. "There were crude forms of anesthesia as early as 70 A.D. An early Roman physician used opium and mandrake. In China there was and still is acupuncture. And around the world alcohol was used but vomiting was an unworkable side effect. Serious early work with anesthesia began with nitrous oxide and ether. An English chemist discovered that nitrous oxide relieved his headache and dental pain, but his report went unnoticed. Then an American dentist extracted his own teeth under nitrous oxide." Medical Discovery News, hosted by UTMB's Norbert Herzog and David Niesel, is broadcast by nearly 100 stations in the U.S. and Mexico. Locally, you can hear the program at 10 a.m. on Saturdays on KUHT, 88.7 FM and KTSU, 90.9 FM.