Robert Reynolds Macintosh

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Sir Robert Reynolds Macintosh (born October 17, 1897 in Timaru , New Zealand , † August 28, 1989 in Oxford , England ) was a New Zealand anesthetist . He was the first professor of anesthesiology outside the USA and the first professor of the subject in Europe. Various innovations can be traced back to him, the best-known being the curved laryngoscope spatula named after him .

Life

Robert Reynolds Macintosh and his wife Dorothy

Macintosh was baptized under its Maori name Rewi Rawhiti . He was the youngest son of Charles Nicholson Macintosh, a newspaper editor and Mayor of Timaru , and his wife, Lydia Beatrice Thompson. It spent part of its childhood in Argentina but returned to New Zealand at the age of 13. He attended Waitaki Boys' High School , where he stood out for his academic and athletic achievements.

In 1915 Robert Macintosh traveled to Great Britain, where he joined the Royal Scots Fusiliers , but soon moved to the Royal Flying Corps . As a fighter pilot he took part in the First World War and was promoted to Air Commodore . In 1917 he was shot down behind the enemy front in France and became a prisoner of war.

After the war, he studied medicine at Guy's Hospital Medical School in London and then began training as a surgeon. In 1927 he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons . During his surgical activity, he developed an interest in anesthesia procedures using laughing gas , but also in intravenous anesthesia with barbiturates , which received a very critical response at the time.

During this time Macintosh became friends with the wealthy car manufacturer William Richard Morris , Viscount of Nuffield. He supported the University of Oxford , which was beginning to establish itself as a medical center, as a patron financially in the establishment of chairs in internal medicine , surgery and obstetrics . However, contrary to the wishes of the university, he stipulated the condition that such a system would also be created for the subject of anesthesiology . At Morris's explicit request, Macintosh became the first professor of anesthesia in Great Britain in 1937 and the first outside the USA. In this position he established the field that hardly existed as such and developed his department in Oxford into a professional institution.

Robert Macintosh was married to Dorothy Manning . He retired in 1965 and died in 1989 at the age of 91 after falling while walking his dog.

Services

Laryngoscope with Macintosh blades of various sizes

Robert Macintosh researched and published on a wide range of medical topics and in this role had a major impact on the development of the still young field of anesthesiology.

During the war he trained anesthetists for the British Air Force. In the air war over the English Channel, he recognized the need for an effective life jacket , as many pilots drowned after a crash. In risky attempts, he threw his colleague and friend Edgar Pask, anesthetized and fitted with a ventilation system, into a swimming pool several times, which resulted in the development of a life jacket that keeps the head above water in the unconscious. This allegedly saved the lives of several hundred British pilots, for which Macintosh was knighted by the Queen in 1955 .

In cooperation with William Morris, who as a car manufacturer had the appropriate technical requirements, Macintosh developed a negative pressure ventilator (" iron lung "), which was subsequently widely used in British hospitals. In the aftermath of the polio epidemic in Copenhagen (1952) he was involved in the development of modern positive pressure ventilation technology. He also invented several anesthetic gas vaporizers (including the Oxford vaporiser ), which were used in British field hospitals because of their simple operation. Macintosh's best-known development was the laryngoscopy spatula named after him , which has become the worldwide standard for endotracheal intubation .

After the World War he did more research in the field of regional anesthesia . Against broad resistance, he campaigned for the use of spinal anesthesia for cesarean section , which at that time was mostly performed under anesthesia. Macintosh developed a number of novel spinal and epidural needles as well as various regional anesthesia procedures for the head and extremities, including plexus anesthesia on the arm .

Macintosh dealt intensively with safety and risk management in anesthesia and developed corresponding training programs. He was a representative of a safe-and-simple concept in anesthesia ( “There should be no deaths due to anesthesia” ).

supporting documents

  1. ^ Macintosh Laryngoscope. Virtual Museum of Equipment for Airway Management, accessed July 12, 2011 .
  2. ↑ a b Keith Sykes: Macintosh, Sir Robert Reynolds (1897-1989) . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Oxford University Press, 2004 ( oxforddnb.com [accessed February 20, 2009]).
  3. ^ A b c d e f T. Croft: Professor Sir Robert Macintosh, 1897–1989. In: Resuscitation. 54 (2), Aug 2002, pp. 111-113. PMID 12161289
  4. ^ A b W. W. Mushin: Professor Emeritus Sir Robert Reynolds Macintosh October 17, 1897 - August 28, 1989. In: Anaesthesia. 44 (12), Dec 1989, pp. 950-952. PMID 2694859
  5. ^ RR Macintosh: A new laryngoscope. In: Lancet. 1, 1943, p. 205.
  6. ^ RR Macintosh: Deaths under anaesthetics. In: Br J Anaesth. 21 (3), Jan 1949, pp. 107-136. PMID 18115864
personal data
SURNAME Macintosh, Robert Reynolds
BRIEF DESCRIPTION New Zealand anesthetist
DATE OF BIRTH October 17, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Timaru , New Zealand
DATE OF DEATH August 28, 1989
Place of death Oxford , England