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British Journal of Anaesthesia 2004 93(5):619-623; doi:10.1093/bja/aeh260
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© The Board of Management and Trustees of the British Journal of Anaesthesia 2004

Editorial I: Tiny wonders of tiny impurities of nitrous oxide during anaesthesia

N. Marczin

Department of Anaesthesia, Division of Surgery and Anaesthetics, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, Department of Anaesthetics, Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Trust, Harefield Hospital, Middlesex UB9 6JH, UK E-mail: n.marczin@imperial.ac.uk

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

‘History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce’ 38153. Marx, Karl. The Columbia World of Quotations. 1996.

Reading the work of Hess and colleagues in this issue of the British Journal of Anaesthesia1 reminds me of the familiar line ‘History repeats itself’. An Internet search traces the origins of this quotation to Hegel. However, I came across the above extension by Marx, which seems quite applicable to the story of inhaled nitric oxide and anaesthesia, and particularly to the topic of contamination of nitrous oxide with nitric oxide. Certainly, the story starts as the tragedy reported by J. Clutton-Brock,2 who described two cases of fatal poisoning by contamination of nitrous oxide with apparently toxic concentrations of higher oxides of nitrogen during anaesthesia. The toxic effects culminated in massive lung injury and were most likely a result of manufacturing problems. This toxic potential created immediate anxiety among anaesthetists, . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Declaration of interest


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P. Peyton, R. M. Carette, J. F. A. Hendrickx, A. M. De Wolf, W. Hess, J. Kannmacher, and J. Kruse
Contamination of anaesthetic gases with nitric oxide and its influence on oxygenation
Br. J. Anaesth., May 1, 2005; 94(5): 687 - 688.
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