The Risk Taken in Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol

The hazards of inducing anaesthesia in patients with a full stomach are now widely appreciated, and for this reason the pre-operative preparation of diabetic subjects with oral glucose is deprecated. Other problems which anaesthetists may encounter are the incompatibility of pitocin with light cyclopropane anaesthesia and the possibility of citrate intoxication as a differential diagnosis for cardiovascular collapse after massive transfusion of stored blood. In very few of the cases reported did the anaesthetist know of the use of various drugs before operation, or associate hypotension or prolonged unconsciousness with any form of routine medical treatment. It is hoped that this publication will focus the attention of all medical practitioners on the fact that during anaesthesia unexpected adverse effects may be produced by drugs which do not appear to have any side-effects in the conscious subject. It is to be expected that many additions to the list of drugs discussed above will be noted in the future.