- August Bier
August Karl Gustav Bier (
24 November 1861 -12 March 1949 ) was Germansurgeon and the pioneer ofspinal anaesthesia . After professorships in Greifswald and Bonn, Bier became a professor at theCharité inBerlin .Bier's breakthrough in spinal anaesthesia was made in 1898 when he performed the first planned spinal anaesthetic on a series of 6 patients for lower extremity surgery. Each of them received a spinal dose of cocaine and did well except for having nausea, vomiting and headache afterwards. After this series, Dr. Bier was to receive a spinal anesthetic administered by his assistant, one Dr. Hildebrandt. Unfortunately, although the spinal needle was placed correctly, with
spinal fluid flowing freely from it, thesyringe was only then discovered to not fit the needle. As a result, Dr Bier gained first-hand knowledge of the unpleasant post-spinal headache. Dr Hildebrandt instead became the recipient of the spinal anaesthetic which was achieved usingcocaine . After the injection, Dr Hildebrandt's legs became numb and the two celebrated their success with wine and cigars. The profound analgesia of his legs was demonstrated with repeated kicks to his shins, which however, soon regained their sensation.In 1908 he pioneered the use of
intravenous procaine analgesia .Anesthesiologist s still use the termBier block forintravenous regional anaesthesia , where alocal anaesthetic , usuallyLidocaine , is injected into avein in a limb below atourniquet which is at a high enough pressure to trap the anaesthetic.Bier's well-known quote is: "Medical scientists are nice people, but you should not let them treat you!"
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