Collecting and Recollecting: Gifts from the Recent Past

Respiratory Equipment

Intubation, a technique developed in the United States by Dr. J. O'Dwyer in 1880, was used to treat the children's disease diphtheria during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A major complication of the disease was the formation of a membrane over the trachea, which made breathing difficult or impossible. As a non-surgical relief for the suffocation related to this and other tracheal and respiratory illnesses, intubation was widely accepted by many doctors and, in serious cases, replaced tracheotomy as the last resort.

The metal tubes (which came in various sizes to accommodate patients of all ages) were inserted into the larynx with the forceps; a catch on the forceps removed the inner core of the tube, forming an airway. After a few days, when the illness subsided, the tube was removed with different forceps which locked onto the tube for withdrawal.

Deftness and familiarity with these instruments was very important. Though the whole operation took no more than 10 seconds, the risk of mispositioning the tube -- perhaps into the esophagus -- was always possible.

Donor Roxy McLaren, MD, a 1975 graduate of The University of Iowa College of Medicine, received this set as a medical school graduation gift from her family physician, Dr. R.M. Needles. The original owner was Dr. H. E. Campbell of Anita, Iowa. Dr. Campbell's brother was also a physician and the family doctor for the Needles family from the time Dr. Needles was born in 1907.

"These were from the instruments of Dr. H. E. Campbell of Anita, Iowa, which I purchased when I started practice in Anita in 1935," Dr. Needles wrote. "I of course, never used the intubation set although I had diphtheria cases when I practiced in Anita and these were treated with serum."

Gift of Roxy C. McLaren, MD, Ottumwa, Iowa

Wagner's Lung Shrinker
circa 1945

Lung Shrinker was compounded in the pharmacy of University Hospitals, where it was prescribed as an expectorant and decongestant. Although the mixture was prepared in the hospital for decades, it is not known whether the formula originated here. Its manufacture was discontinued in the late 1940's. However, donor Lewis January, MD, recalls that it was widely used, even at that time.

Gift of Lewis E. January, MD, Department of Internal Medicine, UIHC

Freeze-dried Human Aorta and Trachea
circa 1969
Prepared at The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics

Freeze-drying is a common process used commercially to preserve foods. These vials, however, contain freeze-dried human tissue. Once living tissue, this aorta and trachea were processed and preserved in large test tubes by removing the air under a vacuum and sealing the ends with a flame.

Richard L. Lawton, MD, explains that freeze-dried tissue was used in replacement surgery in the 1960's and the success rate was good. When a preserved blood vessel was needed, it was first rehydrated in sterile saline and then sewn into position. The structure of the tissue was retained in the process of freeze-drying, yet because the living cells were killed and sterilized, the tissue did not trigger an immunological response.

The trachea, however, was not useful in transplant. While a blood vessel is essentially a transport tube, the trachea is a composite tissue of muscle, cartilage and an inner lining, and its function is lost in preservation. For the same reason, freeze-dried organs, like the kidney, were never useful for transplant procedures.

These examples of freeze-dried tissue were preserved in 1969 or 1970. Today, plastic and living tissue are used in vessel replacement, but freeze-dried tissue is still used in bone, ligament and tendon reconstruction.

Gift of Richard L. Lawton, MD, Iowa City