The Museum of Medicine and Health : Halothane Control Unit

The Museum of Medicine and Health

<p style='text-align: justify;'>This Flutech Fluothane (Halothane) Vaporiser flow control apparatus was made by Penlon Co. Oxford in the 1970s. The equipment carefully controls the flow of Halothane anaesthetic administered to a patient.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Halothane was the first synthetic anaesthetic, identified in 1955 by Dr Charles Suckling DSc (1920-2013) and was later manufactured by Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) in Cheshire. Dr Michael Johnstone (d.2007), an anaesthetist at Crumpsall Hospital and the Manchester Royal Infirmary, led the clinical trials of Halothane in 1956. Dr Johnstone helped to introduce a more scientific approach to the use of anaesthetics and improved their safe use in the NHS. At the time, Halothane was safer than previous anaesthetics: ether was flammable, and chloroform had a tendency to cause cardiac arrhythmias. However, it was later found that Halothane sometimes caused liver disease, and it was itself replaced by other improved synthetic anaesthetic agents. Dr Johnstone was President of the Section of Anaesthesia of the Manchester Medical Society, and he successfully campaigned for Operating Department anaesthetic assistant training courses, funded by the NHS.</p>