Medical instrumentation
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The Esophageal Obturator Airway, a device designed for use in the management of cardiopulmonary arrest, obstructs the esophagus while simultaneously ventilating the lungs. The EOA was clinically tested in 29,000 patients with a low incidence of false entries and complications. ⋯ It was concluded that whenever optimal conditions for endotracheal intubation are unavailable, the EOA should be first choice in the management of the airway in aneflexic, apneic patients. Specific contraindications are listed.
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The use of thermography in breast cancer detection is reviewed. Although advantageous in its total lack of radiation exposure to the patient, thermography has limitations in that significant false-positive and false-negative cancer detection rates have been demonstrated. The potential use of thermography in evaluation of the pathogenesis of breast cancer and in identifying women at high risk is discussed.
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Medical instrumentation · Mar 1976
Patient monitoring in the operating room--an anesthetist's viewpoint.
The spectrum of patient monitoring techniques and equipment presently available in the operating room is reviewed from the anesthetist's viewpoint. Although electronic monitoring instruments are becoming more sophisticated with self-contained microprocessors or computer interfaces, few are designed for performance specifically within the hostile environment of the operating room. ⋯ Event recording during anesthesia depends upon the time-honored but inefficient handmade record of the anesthetist. Within the context of developing a computer-assisted monitoring and display system, this commentary presents the physician's perspective of instrumentation limitation and successes.
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Medical instrumentation · Nov 1975
Historical ArticleA survey of the history of electrical stimulation for pain to 1900.
This paper traces the history of the use of electricity to treat pain, beginning with the first century A. D. practice of using the torpedo fish to treat gout, continuing through the eighteenth-century use of electrostimulation as an analgesic, up to 1900 when electroanalgesia fell into disrepute. The author recognizes the early empiric nature of electrotherapy as it was catalogued by the Reverend John Wesley, and the beginnings of speculation on the mechanism of pain relief by Berlioz, Sarlandière, and others.