The Surgeons Halsted and Hall, Cocaine and the Discovery of Dental

The surgeons Halsted and Hall, IN BRIEF • Describes the discovery and use of cocaine as an anaesthetic and the GENERAL cocaine and the discovery dangers of self-experimentation. • Dr Halsted and his aide Dr Hall discovered the technique for blocking the inferior alveolar nerve and the antero-superior of dental anaesthesia dental nerve using cocaine as an anaesthetic. • Since its introduction, the anaesthetic by nerve blocking technique described has been revolutionary in the practice of odontology. A. López-Valverde,1 J. De Vicente2 and A. Cutando3 VERIFIABLE CPD PAPER William Stewart Halsted is considered to be one of the most influential and innovative surgeons the USA has ever pro- duced. His contributions to surgery are abundant, ranging from sophisticated surgical techniques in the field of breast surgery, surgery of the digestive apparatus and traumatological interventions, to the introduction of gloves in the operat- ing theatre. Here we present Dr Halsted, together with his aide Dr Hall, as the discoverers of the technique for blocking the inferior alveolar nerve and the antero-superior dental nerve using cocaine as an anaesthetic. The anaesthetic technique, described perfectly by both surgeons in 1885, has been revolutionary in the practice of odontology since its introduction, offering dentists the possibility of performing invasive interventions to the maxillary without pain. DISCOVERY and then went on to occupy the position of Biographical data, travels, Chief of Surgery until 1922, when he died.1 and training in Europe Richard John Hall (Fig. 2), who was born in Ireland, emigrated as a child to New William Stewart Halsted (Fig. 1) was born York. He followed medical studies at the in New York in 1852. In 1875 he entered College of Physicians and Surgeons at the the College of Physicians and Surgeons at University of New York, earning himself the University of Columbia (NY), earning a Doctorate in Medicine in 1878. Like his a doctorate in Medicine in 1877. colleague Halsted, he also travelled to He periodically travelled to Europe Europe, visiting the best universities and and, in Vienna, he worked as an assistant clinics of those times. to Billroth, famed for his surgery of the In New York he worked as a surgeon at digestive system. In Germany, he bene- the Roosevelt Hospital and was the first, fited from the teaching of prestigious sur- in 1886, to perform an appendectomy. In a geons such as Volkmann, Kaposi, Chiari cruel twist of fate, the man who had been and Zuckerland. In Switzerland he met pioneer in this type of intervention died of Hermann Kocher, renowned for his surgi- acute appendicitis on 24 January 1897.2 Fig. 1 William Stewart Halsted cal skills and knowledge of diseases of the thyroid gland, with whom, over the years, THE DISCOVERY OF COCAINE AS AN ANAESTHETIC he developed a profound friendship. In 1883, at the age of 36, he was awarded We owe the first reference to the anaes- a professorship and became the Head of thetic effects of coca to Spanish Jesuit the Department of Surgery of the Johns Bernabé Cobo (1582-1657), who in his Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore (Maryland), 1653 manuscript work on the New World, mentions that toothaches can be alleviated by chewing coca leaves.3,4 1*,2Associate Professors, School of Dentistry, Faculty of In 1884, Carl Koller reported the use Medicine, Department of Surgery, University of Sala- of cocaine as a topical anaesthetic for manca, Spain; 3Tenured lecturer, School of Dentistry, Faculty of Odontology, University of Granada, Spain the mucosa of the eye at a Congress of *Correspondence to: Dr Antonio López-Valverde Ophthalmology in Heidelberg, held on 15 Email: [email protected] September of that year.5 Refereed Paper News of Koller’s discovery spread Accepted 7 October 2011 DOI: 10.1038/sj.bdj.2011.961 across the world faster than did the dis- ©British Dental Journal 2011; 211: 458-487 covery of general anaesthesia, because Fig. 2 Richard John Hall BRITISH DENTAL JOURNAL VOLUME 211 NO. 10 NOV 26 2011 485 © 2011 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved. GENERAL communications had improved as transat- in practical exercises. Halsted, Hall and occupational therapy. Shortly afterwards, lantic cables had been laid, thereby affording their colleagues performed more than Welch hired a boat to sail to the Leeward almost instantaneous telegraphic contact. 1,000 painless minor surgical interven- Islands in February and March 1886 and, A doctor present at that Congress of tions at the Outpatient Department of the in turn, keep Halsted safely out of contact Ophthalmology in Heidelberg, Dr Henry D. Roosevelt Hospital. with cocaine.12 Noyes, from New York, sent a letter that Halsted was a meticulous and very The trip did not prove to be the solu- was published on 11 October 1884 in the patient anatomist. He acquired a 4% tion and not very long afterwards Welch New York Medical Records, even before solution of Cocaine from Parke Davies & and McBride, two of Halsted’s friends, and Koller made the presentation of his discov- Company (the extracting and distribut- even his brother Richard convinced him to ery in Vienna on 16 October the same year.6 ing company of cocaine in the USA) and check into the Butler Hospital (Providence, Halsted and his colleague Hall learned started to test it on his students at the Rhode Island), which was a facility for about the discovery through the ‘Noyes College of Physicians and Surgeons in New alcoholics since in those times addiction Report’ addressing the Congress of York. The results were spectacular. When to drugs was relatively rare. There, he Ophthalmology in Heidelberg, although the cocaine was injected along the course remained under strict surveillance for six some investigators consider that Halsted of a nerve it anaesthetised the innervated months. In those days he was consuming and Koller had already been meeting at region. However, it did have some unde- at least three ‘grains’ of cocaine a day (1 the University of Vienna between 1878 sirable side effects, such that it became grain = 64.79891 mg), which is a danger- and 1880 at the Department of Pathology necessary to dilute the solution in order ous amount.9 of the Allgemeines Krankenhaus, where to use lower doses, which also proved to The key to the treatment received by Koller worked next to Sigmund Freud.7 be effective. One of the most striking appli- Halsted was the replacement of cocaine After that time, Halsted and Hall began cations was tooth extraction, which until by morphine. their first clinical trials, initially infiltrat- then had always been extremely painful. In 1887, he entered rehabilitation again, ing the nerve trunks with 4% solutions of On the same day that the first article this time for nine months, after which he cocaine injected into the branchial plexus in English of Koller’s work appeared in returned to the laboratory and progres- and the posterior tibial nerve, using the The Lancet, at the beginning of December sively resumed his clinical activities. hypodermic syringe described by Charles 1884, Hall reported its results in the New Thanks to Welch’s support, almost two Gabriel Pravaz to do so. In this way they York Medical Journal. years later in 1889 he was named, pro- managed to perform painless operations The Editor’s comment accompanying visionally and for only one year, assis- on the upper and lower limbs. They also the initial publication of Hall’s findings tant professor and surgeon at the Johns began to use cocaine subcutaneously as a recommended that the drug should not be Hopkins Hospital.1 local anaesthetic, following the technique considered innocuous, pointing out that Dr His dedication to his work and his prow- developed by the Frenchman Reclus and Hall himself had observed marked consti- ess as a surgeon led him to be awarded a the German Schleich. tutional symptoms with the injection of 32 professorship in 1892, despite his precari- In 1892, Dr Schleich was the first ‘minima’ (1 ‘minima’ = 0.059 ml) of a 4% ous state of health. There is considerable to publish a clinical report addressing solution of cocaine hydrochloride. controversy as to whether Halsted finally more than 1,000 operations in which the The self-experimentation was to have managed to cure himself of the cocaine cocaine infiltration technique was used, tragic consequences for the protagonists, habit since despite his great achievements and he later presented his findings and the who ended up completely addicted to as a surgeon and professor there were sud- Annual Congress of the German Society the substance.10 den ‘trips away’ and he sometimes aban- for Surgery in Berlin.8 doned his post claiming different illnesses. COCAINE ADDICTION In 1969, on the occasion of the eighth dec- THE DISCOVERY OF NERVE The frequent use of the alkaloid itself, ade of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, a sealed BLOCK ANAESTHESIA for experimental ends, led to the doctors black box was opened with a silver key; In 1884, William Stewart Halsted was becoming addicted to the substance and this box contained a secret report writ- already a successful surgeon in New York. they began to exhibit erratic social and ten by William Osler, who revealed that He had worked for two years in Berlin with professional behaviour; this is turn leading Halsted had tried to cure his addiction to Ernst von Bergmann and Karl Thiersch in to several admissions to hospital and cures cocaine by using morphine, and that it was Leipzig, and with Richard von Volkmann to combat their addiction.11 his addiction to this substance that led to in Halle, where he became interested in For Halsted this meant the end of his his death.9 asepsis and antisepsis and the study of the career as a surgeon in New York.

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