Practical Points in Anesthesia

Chapter 16: Recession of the Tongue After Narcosis.

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About This Book

Practical techniques for inducing and maintaining inhalation anesthesia with chloroform, ether, and anaesthol are presented, including mask configuration and gradual dropwise induction. Cautious administration and morphine premedication are recommended, with respiratory patterns and reflexes used to judge the surgical plane. Recognition and management of complications—cardiac and respiratory collapse, obstructed breathing from crowding, and reflex responses to surgical manipulation—are discussed. Airway measures such as breathing tubes, intubation, jaw and tongue maneuvers, oxygen, and artificial respiration are outlined. Advice on maintaining depth, when to stimulate, sequencing agents for different procedures, awakening, and postoperative distress completes the practical guidance.

Recession of the Tongue After
Narcosis.

Post-operative Asphyxia

Sometimes, especially in individuals who show this tendency during narcosis, a marked obstruction in breathing is met with, attended by increasing cyanosis, a condition due to dropping back or recession of the base of the tongue into the laryngo-pharyngeal space. Changing the position of the head does not improve the breathing, the jaw cannot be pushed forward because the masseter is rigidly contracted and the teeth are clenched tightly. To draw forward the tongue would require a rough procedure, with wedge, gag, and forceps. If a soft rubber catheter or the breathing tube be passed through the nostril into the pharynx the respiratory air streams freely through the tube.