Essay on modern history of anesthesia in egypt as reflected in naguib [bey] mahfouz books

It was already known that Professor Naguib [Bey] Mahfouz [1882-1974] was the first staff anesthetist at Kasr El- Ainy Hospital [KEAH] in Cairo between the years 1904-1906. It is not well established why he changed his specialty. In a pursuit of this story, a very relevant account was discovered in his books published in 1935 on medical education and in 1966, a biography. Interesting revelations in his biography were revealed: First, he was not the first anesthetist at KEAH, and he was appointed to replace a retired anesthetist called Amin Naseem; second, chloroform was introduced to Egypt by Herbert Milton, the British surgeon at KEAH, toward the end of the last century; third, the reason why he changed his specialty was a fatal case of obstructed labor whom he has been giving anesthesia to- an incident that turned him toward obstetrics; fourth, he used chloroform, ehter and spinal analgesia with stovaine even when he was practicing as a surgeon; fifth, he revealed in his medical education book the names of pioneer doctors working in anesthesia in Egypt

Death under anesthesia in the Middle East

An account of the first reported death under chloroform of an 18 years old man, in 1899 at a hospital in Beirut. The local government showed concern and investigated the cause of death. The auther called for awareness of the lethal dangers of chloroform, advised the use of ether and local analgesies

Comparative study between epidural xylocaine and pethidine for pain in labour

Forty-eight parturient mothers had received epidural analgesia for relief of labour pain. The drugs used were either xylocaine or pethidine [50 mg diluted in 10ml normal saline]. The degrees of pain relief in labour as well as mechanisms of action of the two drugs has been described. It is concluded that epidural pethidine produced pain relief during delivery without instrumentation and that pethidine still can be used whenever local analgesic is not the first choice