First reported use of xenon as an anesthetic in humans in the world

Stuart Cullen, MD, chief of anesthiosology, is the first to use xenon—an odorless, colorless gas—as a surgical anesthetic. Two years earlier, wool pants cause an explosion of diethyl ether in an operating room, perforating the anesthetist's eardrum and causing a pharyngeal laceration in the patient. The incident motivates Cullen to begin researching inert gases as anesthetizing agents.

Date: 
Monday, January 1, 1951