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Show Doctors Usi Arrow Poison as Throat Surgery Anesthetic CHICAGO. Curare, ancient South American arrow poison, has proved a valuable addition to" anesthetics used in throat operations, a group of eye, ear and throat, specialists was told. Such surgery, said Dr. R. Charles Adams of Rochester, Minn., poses a special problem. The operation li performed in an area where the apparatus ap-paratus for anesthesia usually ii maintained, and there is no danger of interfering with a patient's air supply. Also, various Inflammable gasses are barred because of the possibility that a spark from an electric needle used in the throat to cauterize tissue tis-sue after an operation might cause an explosion. Another problem is that the areas of operation are at the seat of several sev-eral reflexes the "triggers" that cause gagging and nausea. The dose of whatever anesthesia used must be sufficiently powerful to nullify these reflexes. Dr. Adams said that effective use ha'" been made of curare and pento-thol. pento-thol. A relatively small dose of pent-othol, pent-othol, Insufficient to paralyze the reflexes, is injected into a vein. The injection then is supplemented with curare which temporarily blocks the reflexes. |