Anesthesia

Mask (1), combined

Maske n. SUDECK

   Around 1903, the Hamburg surgeon Paul SUDECK published a mask, which soon became widespread. It was used for both ether and chloroform. A cotton ball was placed in the upper opening, onto which the anesthetic was dripped. A side-mounted expiration valve prevented spent gas from accumulating in the mask.

Paul SUDECK (1866-1938) received his doctorate in Würzburg in 1890 and became assistant at the General Hospital in Hamburg-Eppendorf. There he habilitated, advanced in 1919 to a.o. Professor and 1923 Director of the Surgical Clinic of the University Hospital Hamburg. He had a special interest in general anesthesia - from him comes the aether rush (1901), together with his pupil Helmut Schmidt he introduced the laughing gas anesthesia back into Germany.