Intrarectal Anesthesia in Neurosurgery

In the early days of modern neurological surgery, the inconveniences and potential dangers
of general anesthesia by chloroform and ether using the so-called “open-drop technique” led
to the quest for alternative methods of anesthesia. This became all the more necessary,
since patient positioning and the surgical arrangements often hindered the use of a drop
bottle. One approach to solve this problem was intra-rectal ether application. The present
article aims to shed light on this original, less well-known anesthesia technique in the
neurosurgical field.