Anesthesia


Mouth opener (2a) from PITHA

Mundsperrer einfaches Modell Waarenhaus

PITHA mouth opener, about 1860

Austrian surgeon Franz Freiherr von PITHA (1810-1875), who ran a clinic in Prague, later in Vienna, despaired of the inevitable wound infections and became "knife-shy". Only with the discovery of antisepsis did he recommend his student again to take the knife. This PITHA was the first to try to protect its patients from excessive and one-sided anesthesia, using a single substance (ether or chloroform) with all its side effects. He was the first to try (1861, in a herniotomy) to follow the inhalation of a chloroform-ether mixture in addition a rectal enema with Tollkirschensaft to extend the effect of anesthesia without having to increase the Aether- and chloroform levels.
He is also the inventor of the named after him wooden wedge for violently opening the mouth - with two flat and two narrow, ribbed sides.



PITHA and Tyrol
"About two years ago, Hofrath Pitha had the misfortune to injure himself in one operation on a finger and thereby cause an infection of the blood." In vain he sought healing in the most diverse curacities. "A year ago he spent the summer on the shores of the magnificent Achensee in Tyrol, but returned from there only suffering to Vienna.He had to renounce the teaching entirely "(Neue Illustrierte Zeitung, Jan. 9, 1876).


12 cm long wooden wedge, found in an ENT compilation, together with 2 anesthesia masks, Flea Market Olympiastadion München 9/2018



He wrote:
Franz Freiherr von Pitha (1810-1875) and Theodor Billroth (1829-1894): Handbook of general and special surgery. Erlangen and Stuttgart, 1874.