Announcing the 19th Spring Meeting of the Anesthesia History Association - May 2-4, 2013, Hartford, Connecticut

Announcement and description of the program for the 19th Spring Meeting of the Anesthesia History Association, May 2-4, 2013, in Hartford, Connecticut

Medical History for Anesthesiologists: Continuation of a Primer

Editor’s note: The absence of a recognized formal curriculum in anesthesia history means that many of us have known and unknown gaps in our knowledge. These gaps limit our ability to understand how things came to be, how things may become and how we can affect the future. I have asked Dr. Manisha Desai and Dr. Sukumar Desai to provide a primer on the history of medicine and anesthesia history. The goals of this primer are to educate and to help individuals target future study. Below is the second article in a continuing series

A new mixture model approach to analyzing allelic-loss data using Bayes factors

BACKGROUND: Allelic-loss studies record data on the loss of genetic material in tumor tissue relative to normal tissue at various loci along the genome. As the deletion of a tumor suppressor gene can lead to tumor development, one objective of these studies is to determine which, if any, chromosome arms harbor tumor suppressor genes. RESULTS: We propose a large class of mixture models for describing the data, and we suggest using Bayes factors to select a reasonable model from the class in order to classify the chromosome arms. Bayes factors are especially useful in the case of testing that the number of components in a mixture model is n(0 )versus n(1). In these cases, frequentist test statistics based on the likelihood ratio statistic have unknown distributions and are therefore not applicable. Our simulation study shows that Bayes factors favor the right model most of the time when tumor suppressor genes are present. When no tumor suppressor genes are present and background allelic-loss varies, the Bayes factors are often inconclusive, although this results in a markedly reduced false-positive rate compared to that of standard frequentist approaches. Application of our methods to three data sets of esophageal adenocarcinomas yields interesting differences from those results previously published. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that Bayes factors are useful for analyzing allelic-loss data

The Discovery of Modern Anaesthesia – Contributions of Davy, Clarke, Long, Wells and Morton

While many may argue as to who deserves the most credit for the discovery of modern anaesthesia, events in the late 18 th and early 19 th centuries led to the introduction and development of modern anaesthetic techniques. English physicist and chemist Humphry Davy [1778-1829] first became aware of the sedative and analgesic properties of nitrous oxide in 1795. Although he never experimented with the drug during a surgical procedure, he was the first to suggest that it would be beneficial in relieving pain during surgical procedures. The mind-altering properties of nitrous oxide and ether were often abused for recreational purposes, and the term \u27ether frolics\u27 was coined to describe such use. While physician William Crawford Williamson Long [1815-1878] first used ether during general surgery, medical student William Edward Clarke [1819-1898] was the first to use ether for dental extraction in 1842. Dr. Long neglected to publicize his findings until 1849, thereby denying himself much of the credit he deserved. Dentist Horace Wells [1815-1848] successfully used nitrous oxide for dental procedures, but a public demonstration which he held in January 1845 turned out to be a fiasco. Medical student William Thomas Green Morton [1819-1868] was the first to publicly demonstrate the effectiveness of ether for general surgery on October 16, 1846. This article seeks to give rightful credit to each of these individuals for their unique contributions to the discovery of modern anaesthesia

William James Morton (1845 – 1920): Like Father, Like Son?

William Thomas Green Morton, the man most commonly associated with the introduction of anesthesia in 1846, fathered William James Morton. William James Morton’s contributions to society were substantial. He conducted pioneering work in radiology, radiation oncology, and therapeutic electricity. He authored numerous textbooks and articles, and he was an editor of a journal on human behavior. His expertise on diamond mining led to an error in judgment that resulted in a felony conviction. We examine his career and contributions to society, and consider his career in light of his father, William Thomas Green Morton