[Quality control 100 years ago. "Narcosis statistics" by Gurlt from 1893]

Even 100 years ago the problem of quality assurance in anaesthesia was investigated. In 1890 the German Society of Surgery decided to start "Multicenter Statistics on Surgical Anaesthesia." The project was headed by Ernst Gurlt, surgeon in Berlin. In 1893 he reported on the basis of 62 questionnaires on approximately 50,000 anaesthetic procedures, mostly performed with chloroform. 9 fatal chloroform cases led to a mortality rate of 1:4,275. On the other hand among 6,213 cases with ether anaesthesia there was no death. Gurlt strictly recommended the administration of ether, seconded by contemporaries such as Garré, Trendelenburg, Roux and Juillard. Gurlt's report includes as appendix detailed information on the administered anaesthetics, application techniques, premedication, fatal and non-fatal complications extracted from 18 of the analysed questionnaires. Gurlt's publication is an early document of quality assurance in Germany.