The Use of Human Plasma in Spinal Anesthesia

During the relatively short history of spinal anesthesia, attention has been focused on two problems in designing technic for placing drugs into the subarachnoid space. The first of these has been to produce the desired extent of anesthesia in a manner predictable and with minimal dangers; the second, to secure the required duration of anesthesia with doses of the agent that provide a wide margin of safety. The latter problem has been approached in several ways. Recently, nupercaine and pontocaine, drugs more toxic but more potent than procaine, have been given in relatively smaller amounts and act for longer periods of time. Retarding the absorption of anesthetic drugs has been attempted by dissolving them in various foreign substances of higher osmotic tension than spinal fluid. Finally, prolonged spinal anesthesia is being accomplished by the repeated administration of relatively small doses of the drug. The problem of obtaining predictable levels of