[Anesthesia at the "Coltzea" Clinical Hospital, a first line hospital during the revolution of the Romanian people].

Anaesthesia and postoperative course of the wounded victims of the romanian revolution in December 1989 at Bucarest are described. The author, a romanian anaesthetist, was an eyewitness of these events. During this four day period, between 21st and 25th December, 97 live wounded were admitted, 75 of them with very serious wounds, and hypovolaemic shock. The remaining 22 had superficial limb wounds. Twenty-one dead wounded were also admitted to hospital. The wounds involved: the head (3), the neck (4), the chest with an opened pleura (3), with closed pleura (8), the abdomen, including the intra-abdominal and retroperitoneal organs, and the pelvis (14), the upper (16) and lower (39) limbs, and minor skin and soft tissue lesions (10). Seventy-five patients were given a general anaesthetic with endotracheal intubation, 12 an intravenous general anaesthetic without intubation; for the remaining 10, a local anaesthetic technique was used. Four patients died during surgery because of extremely serious wounds, incompatible with life, and overwhelming haemorrhage for which surgical haemostasis was impossible. Two other patients died, one 72 h and the other 5 days later, because of severe infection and gangrene. Twenty days after these events, 91 patients still either recovered or were convalescing.