title: Ryszard Rodzinski-A Forgotten Polish Inventor and Pioneer of Combined Spinal-Epidural Anesthesia.
abstract: Dr. Ryszard Rodzinski was a Polish surgeon who, in spite of his short life, had a productive career. His most important discovery was a safer method of performing regional anesthesia for abdominal surgery. The first description of combined spinal epidural anesthesia is generally attributed to Soresi in 1937. In the early 20th century, Rodzinski invented a novel technique, "combined lumbosacral anesthesia," which combined lumbar spinal anesthesia and sacral epidural anesthesia. During the 19th Meeting of Polish Surgeons in July 1922 in Warsaw, Rodzinski presented an article entitled "On Combined Lumbosacral Anaesthesia," in which he described this technique used in surgical clinic in Lwów since October 1921. Given this presentation, Rodzinski could be considered to have made the first known presentation of the combined spinal and epidural anesthesia.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesiology, Intensive Therapy and Emergency Medicine, Silesian University of Medicine, 3 Maja 13-15, 41-800 Zabrze, Poland.
authors.forename: Andrzej R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Daszkiewicz
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesiology, Intensive Therapy and Emergency Medicine, Silesian University of Medicine, 3 Maja 13-15, 41-800 Zabrze, Poland. Electronic address: maja.grzanka@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Maja M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Copik
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesiology, Intensive Therapy and Emergency Medicine, Silesian University of Medicine, 3 Maja 13-15, 41-800 Zabrze, Poland.
authors.forename: Hanna D
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Misiolek
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesiology and Pain Medicine, St Luke's-Roosevelt Hospitals, New York, NY.
authors.forename: Wojciech Z
authors.initials: WZ
authors.lastname: Reiss
mesh_terms: D000767:Anesthesia, Epidural / Q000266:history*; D000775:Anesthesia, Spinal / Q000266:history*; D000779:Anesthetics, Local; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D062068:Inventors / Q000266:history*; D008297:Male; D011044:Poland; D013514:Surgical Procedures, Operative
chemical_list: D000779:Anesthetics, Local
keywords: Anesthesia; Anesthetics; Epidural anesthesia; Procaine