Ivan Magill

Sir Ivan Whiteside Magill (born July 23, 1888 in Larne , Northern Ireland , † November 25, 1986 ) was an Irish - British anesthetist . Because of his revolutionary inventions in the field of anesthesia technology, he is considered the father of modern anesthesiology .

life and work

Ivan Magill was born the son of the cloth merchant Samuel Magill. He didn't get the name Ivan because of Russian ancestors, but because his mother thought the name sounded better than "John".

Magill studied medicine at Queen's University in Belfast and graduated in 1913. After becoming a doctor, he worked in hospitals in Liverpool for a few months when the First World War broke out. Magill volunteered as a medical officer and served until the end of the war.

After the war he first worked as an anesthetist in the Barnet hospital, but moved to Queen Mary's Hospital in early 1919, where he met the anesthetist Stanley Rowbotham (1890–1979) and the plastic surgeon Harold Gillies (1882–1960). and Thomas Pomfret Kilner (1890–1964) worked together.

When Magill was studying, anesthesia was still carried out with chloroform , chloroethane and nitrous oxide , which were administered by inhalation using the Schimmelbusch mask . Effective injection anesthetics were still unknown at the time. The consequences of the First World War created an enormous need for plastic surgery in the head and neck area, which was made extremely difficult by the anesthesia methods customary at the time. Rectal anesthesia with ether , oral tubes or intertracheal insufflation (blowing in) of air and ether through catheters were common. These methods were risky because the diethyl ether used was volatile and extremely flammable, and inevitably was inhaled by the surgeon.

Magill came up with the innovation of intubating the patient with a tube through the nose, initially with the help of a laryngoscope, but also "blind". In addition, the Magill tube was sealed off from the outside air, and the anesthesiologist was able to fully control breathing with the aid of a reservoir bag and outlet valve. Another advantage was that the anesthetist could now move away from the surgeon's immediate work area. Magill's invention enabled interventions that were previously impossible or very risky, and thus revolutionized thoracic surgery .

In 1923 he worked at London's Brompton Hospital, where he mainly dealt with anesthesia for respiratory diseases. He invented a suction catheter with an inflatable cuff, which served as a bronchial blocker and at the same time enabled the suction of secretions, and an endobronchial tube for single-lung anesthesia .

In 1924 he moved to the traditional Westminster Hospital in London, where he worked until his retirement. Magill's other inventions include a portable ether anesthesia machine with automatic drop supply, a battery-operated laryngoscope and flow sensors for inhalation anesthetics.

In 1931 he was appointed Secretary of the Anesthesia Section of the Royal Society of Medicine . In the following years he tried to establish specialist training in anesthesia, which he succeeded in 1935.

During the Second World War he worked in London as a medical advisor for the emergency services and the Navy. In 1945 he received his PhD from Belfast University , on a thesis that had been rejected by the same university a few years earlier.

In 1946 he was appointed Commander of the Royal Victorian Order and knighted as Knight Commander of the same order in 1960 . He was a member of the Royal Society of Medicine, the Royal College of Surgeons, and received numerous honors in the USA.

He has published several articles in The Lancet , Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine , British Medical Journal, and Anesthesia .

Magill married Edith Banbridge, a doctor, in 1916, who died in 1973. The marriage was childless.

See also

• Magill forceps

literature

• Sir Ivan Whiteside Magill, AW Edridge: Editorial. In: Anaesthesia. 42, 1987, p. 231, doi : 10.1111 / j.1365-2044.1987.tb03032.x .
• K. Bryn Thomas: Sir Ivan Whiteside Magill, KCVO, DSc, MB, BCh, BAO, FRCS, FFARCS (Hon), FFARCSI (Hon), DA. A review of his publications and other references to his life and work. Anaesthesia 33 (7): 628-634, July 1978, doi : 10.1111 / j.1365-2044.1978.tb08426.x
• HA Condon: Sir Ivan Magill. A supplementary bibliography. Anaesthesia 42 (10): 1096-1097, October 1987, doi : 10.1111 / j.1365-2044.1987.tb05176.x
• JW Dundee: Anesthetics. With special reference to Ivan Magill. Ulster Med J. 1987 August; 56 (Suppl): 87-90, PMID 2448193