Machame Anaesthesia Notebook for Medical Auxiliaries

With Special Emphasis on the Developing Countries

The advances in the field of anaesthesiology and reanimation have contributed in all developed countries to the decrease in deaths occurring on the operating table (exitus in tabula), from the ratio 1: 100 (in the nineteenth century) down to approximately 1: 1000 (in the first half of the twentieth century) and finally to approxi­ mately 1: 10 000 (nowadays). Numerous human lives were saved not only through the intro­ duction of new medicine and methods but even more so by better training for the doctors and nurses who apply these new techni­ ques. I am happy about the splendid initiative of my student and friend Georg Kamm, which has now made these advances acces­ sible to the developing countries. He knows very well how to make his colleagues understand the theory and the practical side of modern anaesthesiology, under the most difficult conditions and in a completely different world, to such an extent that to­ day in his country all of his patients are given the benefit of the advances of medicine. There is nothing more rewarding for an academic teacher than to see how his students continue developing his ideas and spread them far and wide. I am therefore happy and proud to write this foreword for Georg Kamm, one of the pioneers of anaesthesiology in Africa.