The history of anesthesia in Mexico, the Caribbean Islands, and Central America

Abstract

Mexico and Cuba rapidly adopted anesthesia following Morton's 1846 demonstration, and US and Mexican forces used ether in the Mexican-American war in 1847. Ether was used in Cuba and Guatemala in 1847, but not until 1861 in the Dominican Republic, 1875 in Panama, and 1889 or later in El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. Surgeons in Cuba used cocaine for topical and local anesthesia in 1884. Spinal anesthesia appeared from 1899 (Mexico first) to 1910 in Mexico, Cuba, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Panama. At the Hospital General de Mexico from 1905 to the mid-1920s, Vázquez found a mortality of approximately 1:1,500 with spinal anesthesia and 1:440 with chloroform. In 1946, Cuban Manuel Curbelo, performed continuous lumbar epidural anesthesia. Vicente García Olivera created the first center for pain treatment in 1948, in Mexico. Keith Holder followed, in Panama in 1975. In 1956, Mexican anesthesiologists assumed responsibility for obstetric anesthesia.