Anaesthetists are familiar with the ‘Schimmlebusch Mask’. This article evolves from Arusha, Tanganyika and a small boy’s memory of a white mask descending over his face circa 1963, having fallen while climbing the household log heap and splitting his eyebrow open, requiring sutures by the local doctor.
Open-ether-mask anaesthesia was a common and safe technique utilised in many countries at the time. Tadeusz Szreter’s recollections of performing ether anaesthesia for children in the late 1950s in Poland is an illuminating read. He describes how two facemasks had to be prepared for each procedure, and how when one became covered in frost, it was replaced by the other. Each mask had to be covered with several layers of gauze neatly trimmed to prevent cheek frostbite. With regard to the safety of ether, Perndt in 2010 and Chang et al in 2015 wrote papers advocating a rethink of this abandoned agent.1,2,3
Numerous articles have been written about Curt Theodor Schimmelbusch (1860–1895) and his eponymous mask; this article is not attempting to review them all, the intention is to stimulate colleagues to explore for themselves.