Introduction of the carbon dioxide absorption method with closed circle breathing into anesthesia practice

The circle breathing CO2 absorption system for use during acetylene anesthesia was described by Carl Gauss in 1924/1925. The apparatus was manufactured by Drägerwerk of Lübeck. A considerable number of publications on the apparatus employing the closed circle method of CO2 absorption appeared in the medical press soon thereafter. Later apparatus models, also built by Drägerwerk, were adapted for nitrous oxide-oxygen-ether anesthesia and introduced into practice by Paul Sudeck and Helmut Schmidt. Information about all this was transmitted to America through the German medical press, including the Draeger-Hefte. American anesthesia machine manufacturers began to develop closed circle CO2 absorbers several years later. Claims that the circle breathing CO2 absorption method was introduced into anesthesia practice by Brian Sword are not valid.