LETTER TO/FROM (DELETED) WITH ENCLOSURE TITLED "REPORT ON ELECTRO-SLEEP AND ELECTRO-ANESTHESIA IN EUROPE AND THE SOVIET UNION"

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 00173883
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 16
• Document Creation Date: January 21, 2025
• Document Release Date: January 15, 1983
• Publication Date: July 7, 1965

7 July 1965
Dear
Recently I supported a visit to Graz, Austria and Moscow,
U.S.S.R., by 1 who had been invited to attend
several informal conferences on the matter of electro-
sleep and electro-anesthesia. Subsequently on his return,
he spent the week of June 27th in my office reviewing
his material and preparing a report on his visit and ex-
periences.
There was no aspect of his trip or his visits which. were
involved in any security classification and therefore his
final report is an unclassified one. Knowing of your past
interest in this area of work, I am enclosing herewith a
copy of Ireport wnich you may retain for your
,
own purposes.
)))
Kind personal regards.
Sincerely,
REPORT ON ELECTRO-SLEEP AND ELECTRO-ANESTHESIA
IN EUROPE AND THE SOVIET UNION
Historical.
I have been actively engaged in the field of electro-anesthesia
for approximately three years. This interest occurred academically
at first, because of my curiosity regarding animal work, at which
time I participated in the building of a unit for experimental pur-
poses.
After an initial success four individuals, including myself,
formed a corporation, 1 to pro-
duce and market the instrument. It was my responsibility to intro-
duce the apparatus to medical institutions, and attempt to get re-
search programs started. In this connection I participated in orig-
inal research as well as cooperated with practically all individuals
in this country working with electro-anesthesia.
Our small corporation was bought out by a large organization in
July, 1964, and I joined it in the same capacity I had been fulfilling
with � i In February 1965 I severed connections with this company.
� As part of the introductory process I have presented papers and
seminars to various branches of the government, American Veterinary
Medical Associations, the Atomic Energy Commision, medical schools,
and the Bio-Engineering section of IEEE i I also took
part in the first bio-engineering symposium held at
I was one of the individuals responsible for organizing the first
and second sympnsiums for electraranesthesia held in and " lin
Colorado and Tennessee, respectively.
At the ] where I presented a paper,
I met with Va visitor from 1who issued an
. .
invitation for me to come to a meeting to be held in Graz, Austria in
May, 1965. Further developments led to my visit to the Soviet Union
and other European countries during this period.
The purpose of my trip to Europe was to determine different me-
thods being used to produce electro-sleep and electro-anesthesia and
to evaluate the effectiveness of those methods. Of primary concern
was securing information regarding methods presently in use in the
Soviet Union.
Basically, I was to inquire as to the use or possible effect of
electronic techniques with hypnosis, sleep, narcosis and electro-shock
therapy.
This report will be in two sections, the first concerning electro-
sleep and the second, electro-anesthesia.
PART I : ELECTRO -SLEEP
I attended a conference organized by Dr. F. Wageneder at the
University of Graz, Austria for the purpose of discussing electro-
sleep. It was assumed that the participation of a group from East
Germany might lead to an invitation to visit their facility and gain
more knowledge of what was going on in the eastern countries.
Professor Dr. M. Herbst of
East Germany did _attend but was
latest techniques in either the
sent more in the capacity of an
pant.
the Karl Marx University, Leipzig,
no help. He was not aware of the
East or West and seemed to be pre-
observer rather than as a partici-
Hoping to further my contacts, it was arranged to have Dr.
Wageneder call Dr. M. G. Ananev in Moscbw and inform him of my visit
to Graz and the fact that I had been on the program
!Symposium in April. As hoped, Dr. Ananev asked if it would
be possible for me to visit with his group; after some trying moments
this was arranged and results will be covered herein.
Dr. Wageneder has a financial interest in AVL, a company that
is producing his "Electrodorm", a sleep machine patterned after the
Soviet "Electrosohn", actually incorporating the latest techniques
presently in use but not yet adopted in the commercially available
Soviet instrumentation. This unit uses a combination AC-DC current.
The frequency of the square wave component varies from 30 to 250cps.
The width may be varied from .2-to 1.4 millisec. The current is ad-
justable from 0 to 5 milliamperes.
There are now three sleep stations in operation in Austria: the
one already mentioned in Graz, another operated by Till Tesarek, Ph.D,
M. D., in Vienna, and a third by Prim. Dr. Stepan in Hartberg. In
addition, units have been purchased by Dr.'s Leonhard, Vorau; Konrad,
Klagenfurt; and Eichhorn, Graz.
According to the distributing firm,.:�7.Ddelga, Vienna, orders
have been received from almost every part of Europe. Units delivered
outside Austria to date include those to Prof. Bartschi-Rochaix, Bern,
Switzerland; Dr. Hochmuth, Berlin, West Germany and Dr. Natalie
Krumovska, Sofia, Bulgaria.
I received information that sleep clinics had been set up in
the following locations, with the Soviet apparatus, or a home-made
model:
Czechoslovakia - 10 stations
Bulgaria - 5 stations
Hungary - 5 stations
Israel - I station
Soviet Union - 300 stations
Paris, France - Dr. A. Limoge
Paris, France - Dr. A. Djourna
Altjessen, Germany - Wolfgang Rentsch
Wolfsburg-Wiesengrund, Germany - Dr. Siegfried Koeppen
Zagreb, Bogoviceve - Prim. Dr. Arnulf Rosenzweig
All of these centers are under the direct supervision of Medical
Doctors and trained medical techniclans.
3
The Graz center has been in operation two years utilizing 6 units
and is solidly booked until September. Dr. Wageneder has presented
very ambitious plans to the Austrian government for a new complex to
house a large sleep center and research facility, and he claims they
are looking favorably on the proposal.
I questioned Dr. Wageneder as to where his patients come from
and how they find their way to his clinic (operated in the Medical
School Hospital). He replied that most of them are referred by other
doctors from throughout Europe. Re said others have come after reading
stories in the newspapers and magazines. During the time I was pre-
sent, his patients were from Austria, Denmark, Switzerland, Hungary and
Germany. Most were being treated for sleep disorders.
Conversations with Dr. S. Roitenburd, generally regarded as the
father of electro-sleep and Dr. W. W. Banschtschikov of the Soviet
UnionSociety of Neuro-pathologists and Psychiatrists brought out the
following points. First and foremost, the Soviets regard the term
"electro-sleep" as a misnomer, they do not expect nor particularly de-
sire their subjects to sleep diifing treatment. They continually
stressed the fact that "electro-sleep" is a form of therapy, and in-
sisted it is just coincidental that it will help those persons afflicted
with problems related to sleep. The main reason being that those pro-
blems are generally related to the nervous system, and it is felt that
the total nervous system is being treated with the instrument. In ad-
dition, it-was made quite clear to me that a series of at least 20 con-
secutive treatments was necessary to achieve a true therapeutic effect.
Dr. Till Tesarek, Vienna, advanced the theory that the current
acts as a stabilizer to the para-sympathetic vaso-depressive function
and it is not strong enough to go through the brain, but rather enters
through the blood system, veins, arteries and then spreads throughout
the system.
Tesarek feels that insomnia is just a symptom of another disease,
and that when you treat that disease with electro-sleep, insomnia dis-
4
appears also. He felt it had particular advantage in giving relief
to older patients afflicted with thz symptoms of arteriosclerosis,
headaches and vertigo. He claims, as do the Soviets, that he can
bring about a lowering of blood pre3sure in hypertensive individuals,
where the cause is not organic, and control it with the use of electro-
sleep, without any form of drug treatment. Dr. Roitenburd claims
cures of Buerger's disease, with no recurrences for over eight years.
The example was also cited of a patient with an ulcer confirmed by
X-Ray who started taking electro-sleep treatments for a nervous dis-
order, during the course of treatment he happened to have another
X-Ray taken, at which time it was noticed the ulcer had disappeared.
This was reported by all workers using the treatment for a considerable
length of time, i. e. Banschtschilvw, Roitenburd, Wageneder and Tesarek.
I questioned the Soviets about the use of conjunctive drug ther-
apy, and all replied that unless the individual was in a hospital for
treatment, there was no use made of conjunctive therapy. Drugs were
never used in any of the clinics in combination with electro-sleep.
All the Soviets were firmly convinced that NASA was using electro-
sleep on the astronauts in the Gemini series, that there was a good
deal of work going on in the U. S. and that we just were not talking
about it. I explained to them that we knew it was being used in the
Cosmos series, which they denied vehemently. After one day of talking,
I think I finally convinced them that I was telling the truth about .
our lack of use of electro-sleep.
At this point they became rather incredulous, expressing the
feeling that it was inconceivable to them that in a country as medi-
cally advanced as the U. S., we would not beSaking full use of a
tool as successful as electro-sleep.
They stated that even though we might feel the claims were exag-
gerated, or even if we felt they were outright lies, the fact re-
mained that the treatment was harmless, and we should at least have
investigated the procedure to find out for ourselves.
When questioned as to use in their space program, Roitenburd
said, "It hasn't been used yet because the capsule can't contain any
sophisticated equipment, only that necessary for maintenance in
space." He did say that all the cosmonauts were undertoing electro-
sleep routinely in their training program, and that its future use is
anticipated. Presumably it would be useful in four ways: (1) to es-
tablish new sleep-work cycles; (2) use in space during extended tra-
vel where sheer fatigue is a problem; (3) if something should go
wrong in space such as emotional disturbances, nervous disorders, etc.,
when recovery has been made the period of treatment could begin im-
mediately with quick results without any waitint., period; (4) its rout4!..
me use putting the men and women in a relaxed, receptive frame of
mind.
if
5
Further investigation is being conducted in connection with over-
coming jet-flight fatigue involved in time zone changes, presumably
it is also being experimented with in extended transportation in the
Red Army. They claim very promising results.
Roitenburd says whenever he goes into different time zones he
gives himself a one hour treatment on arrival and is quite refreshed
and ready for work at its termination. It seems that it is being used
as an aid to promote the adaptive process generally.
Roitenburd and BanschtschiBov both stated that the published re-
ports of one hour of electro-sleep being as good as eight hours of nor-
mal sleep are true, however both maintained that they never intended
to suggest that this could be used in a situation whereby a man would
work eight hours, sleep one, and then work eight again. They felt
that it should be obvious to medical personnel that this would not be
possible; they were only relaxing the nervous system, nothing else,
and felt unhappy that the U.S. popular magazines reported it in that
manner.
They were also most insistent that a course of at least 20
treatments was necessary to get the true therapeutic value; the
treatments are given 5 days a week for four weeks. I inquired about
a possible placebo effect and all Soviet investigators agreed that it
was possible to obtain this in so far as the sleep was concerned, but
all maintained that in the control groups of many studies made by them,
no therapeutic value was seen.
Dr. guzin, Chief Surgeon, First Medical Institute of Moscow, did
not feel electro-sleep was really a subject for much more research,
as they have been using it routinely for a number of years. He is
using it in post operative care and in conjunction with local anesthe-
tics to achieve optimum effect and relaxation of the patient.
In questioning about other facets of its use, i. e. hypnotic
effect, etc. it was brought out that patients have received relief
from 1pfath epileptic attacks (not specified whether grand mal or petit
ma].) over an extended period, after electro-sleep treatment (without
further drug therapy) and the fact that there had been no recurrences
of Buerger's disease in five patients over an eight year period was
also cited. I gathered the impression that electro-sleep is now a
routine measuresgiJen in treatment of Buerger's syndrome. I ques-
tioned Dr. Banschschibbv about possible hypnotic suggestion made
during the period the patients were actually asleep ( &le-third do
sleep during treatment), and this was the only time during the visit
that I felt he attempted to evade the question. He talked a lot about
many things, but would not give a straight answer to that.
Dr. Roitenburd maintained that electro-shock therapy is practi-
cally non-existent in the Soviet Union at this time, that those cases
^
previously treated in that manner were now undergoing extended periods
of electro-sleep, and in some cases were receiving drug therapy also.
Interestingly enough, Dr. Tesarek felt that electro-sleep was of no
value in treating individuals with deep neuroses or hypochondriac symp-
toms, such as would ordinarily need 3 or 4 years of psychiatric care.
The Soviets did not share this view at all.
Much to my surprise the Soviets, including representatives of
Med-export, told me that the rights to the Electrosohn in the United
States had been sold to General Electric Company.
One of the newer developments technically in this field is the
use of white noise as a substitute for the square wave in the appa-
ratus. Both the Soviets and Wageneder mentioned this, and Wageneder
is supposed to send over a prototype of a new machine making use of
this principle. He is also sending one of his standard commercially
available instruments.
The procedure after an individual has been accepted for treat-
ment is as follows: (1) the patient is given a thorough physical ex-
amination by the physician; (2) upon admission to the clinic a chart
is prepared (Inclosure A) indicating the complete data to be taken
during the electro-sleep treatment; (3). in a quiet, darkened room the
patient changes into hospital pajamas, lies down and the electrodes are
adjusted; (4) an M. D. slowly turns up the current until the patient
reports a tingling sensation. No further increase of current is in-
dicated and the patient is left alone for the remainder of the treat-
ment. Normally the current used is 1.2 milliamps.; the frequency of
the square wave component is 100cps although recent workers report
good results with frequencies up to 250'cps. All workers claim
that there-is no evidence of cataract development and the Soviets in
over 100,610Dcases have not reported any statistical increase over that
normally expected in the population. Although the initial treatment
is given by an M. D. usually a-trained murse gives subsequent treat-
ments.
The timer is set, ordinarily for 90 minutes, when the instru-
ment automatically shuts off. If the patient is sleeping at the
time, he is left alone until he awakens. Routine checks are made,
of course, to determine his condition and the operativeness of the
instrument. The electrodorm has built-in devices to shut off auto-
matically if the electric current reaches 5 milliamps.
SUMMARY
(I) No ill effects have been reported by any of the workers.
(2) The patient is not expected to sleep during the treatment, although
one third do so after the first few treatments.
7
)
(3)
A course of at least 20 treatments is absolutely necessary before
it may be determined the treatment is not effective; sometimes
the effect will show up shortly after the 20th session.
(4) There may be an intensification of the symptoms being treated
during the 5-12th sessions, after which they will disappear gradually.
(5) Each treatment lasts from 60-120 minutes depending on the con-
ditions involved.
(6) Placebo effect may be seen in so far as one third sleeping are
concerned, but in no case will there be any therapeutic effect seen.
(7) All diseases of the nervous sy3tem are considered for treatment
by electro-sleep.
(8) A physician is in charge of all sleep stations, assisted by med-
ically trained personnel.
(9) Treatments are evaluated as one third successful, one third par-
tially, with complete success coming late in treatment, one third un-
successful.
(10) Routine use of electro-sleep therapy was accepted without question
by every individual with who'd I came in contact in the Soviet Union.
The importance of electro-sleep in the Soviet Union may be seen
from the fact that there are over 300 stations now operating, each
with an M. D. in charge. Officials seem so convinced of the effective-
ness of treatment that Banschschikov and Roitenburd report difficulty
in obtaining more funds to do further research; the feeling being that
its value has already been proven.
While the claims for electro-sleep seem grossly exaggerated,and
even suggest "quackery", the fact remains that data is available on
over 100,000 patients treated over the past 12 years. In addition,
personnel with whom I had contact in Austria, Switzerland, France and
Italy fully corroborate these findings.
This leads us to the inevitable conclusion that in the United
States we have had a gross misconception of the use of electro-sleep
techniques, and this with a lack of accurate information as to the
methodology involved has in effect halted research in this country.
Perhaps the biggest misconception of all is the commonly held belief
that electro-sleep means just sleep, which as it turns out is not the
case at all.
Dr. Banschschikov is holding a meeting in Moscow during August on
the subject of sleep. The meeting, closed except to invited officials
and doctors in the'PLIscow area, will consider the latest techniques in
electro-sleep, the results of the past 10 years and the direction re-
search should take in the future. Presumably this will be part of a
campaign for more funding from the government. I have been told that
3
if I am able to be in Moscow at that time it will be arranged for me
to attend the symposium, with an interpreter to assist me in under-
standing the discussions.
PART II
Electro-anesthesia
Upon arriving in the Soviet Union I immediately attempted to
contact Dr. Ananev, but since it was a Sunday, I was unsuccessful.
The following morning we did make contact and I was taken by car to
the Research Institute for Experimental Surgical Apparatus and
Instruments. After much preliminary formality I was introduced to
Dr. ValentinaL. Deryabena of the Institute, whom I found was in
charge of the work being conducted in electronic anesthesia. Fol-
lowing introductions we, accompanied by two interpreters, went to
the office of the director where we spent considerable time dis-
cussing the field in general. After about two hours the second
interpreter left us and the talks continued.
I found that quite by coincidence I had appeared on the scene
at the same time the bi-annual meeting of the Institute was being
held. As far as was known in the office of the Air Attache' in
London I was the first American allowed to attend. At the con-
clusion of the papers in which I was interested, I was asked to
present a short talk on the state of the art in the United States,
which I did.
Now as to the actual information exchanged,first of all the
Soviets were thoroughly familiar with all the work published in
the U. S. They quoted liberally from reprints of Knutson, Hardy,
Smith et al. They seemed quite surprised that I was not familiar
with their recent work in the-field. This led to a general dis-
cussion of the difficulty in exchanging information quickly, with-
out having to wait for the Journals, which sometimes have delays up
to 18 months in the printing of submitted articles in the Soviet
Union as well as here. We all agreed it would be advantageous to
set up a system whereby one central location, whether here or there,
would receive at least abstracts of current work and then publish a
monthly or quarterly bulletin, so we would all be up to date, and
-eliminate the present information gap that exists. I feel it would
be possible to do this and would very much lihe to see the possi-
bility explored further.
In the opening period of our talks I mentioned our recent work,
especially the papers presented at the . ASymposium, and in
turnattempted to determine the current state-Of the art there. We
sparred for quite a while, but when the second interpreter left the
room, Dr. Deryabena seemed to loosen up and the information came
quite readily. I don't know the significance of this, but it did
occur in that manner.
ANN/.
9
At first she told me they had experimented with the sine wave
at 700 cps as reported by many of our investigators, but they did not
like the results. When I asked about the combination of AC-DC that
had been veported from the Soviet Union, she said "Oh, we haven't
used that for five years." She seemed honestly surprised to hear
that we were still attempting it. At that point it came out that
that while Dr. Ananev was generally given credit by the western
countries for the work, she anIZ her collaborators had actually been
responsible. All published papers from the Institute list Ananev
as first author, since he is the director.
She also mentioned they had experimented with square waves,
white noise generators, triangular wave forms, etc.,but seemed a
little reluctant to say what was actually being used. At this point
She mentioned that in the next session a report would be given on
the use of electro-anesthesia in human subjects and I would learn
what I wished there, and would be introduced to the doctors who had
done the investigating.
Last year Dr. while attending the Symposium in
Colorado made mention of the fact that a Soviet scientist visiting his
hospital in San Francisco had started to tell him of a new devel-
opment in electro-anesthesia, and had in fact started to draw pictures
of a new type of wave form being tried. At this point one of his
fellow scientists said something in Russian and the man said he was
sorry but he couldn't say more. Dr.
roundation had somewhat the same experience.
At this point in our discussions I decided to mention to Dr.
Deryabena that we had tried a method of mixing the wave forms (which
seemed to be what the Russians had indicated to
She said I would learn all about that the next day.
One point that she was quite emphatic about was that all workers
in the Soviet Union had completely abandoned the use of any form of
direct current. She said they had definitely established that DC
caused morphological changes in the brain, along with behavorial
changes and DC was no longer even considered a matter for discussion.
At th.is point Dr. Geselevich, Deputy Director of the Institute
and Chief of Experimental Surgery, came into the room and joined the
discussion; He asked how the United States Army was coming along
with their field use of the procedure. When I said we were not using
it, he became almost belligerent, insisting he knew we were. He went
so far as to send a secretary out to try to find a bulletin describing
what we were doing, but she couldn't find it. It took a great deal of
hard talking to convince him he had misinformation. This once again
pointed up what misunderstandings have occurred in this field. He felt
10
we were far along and were attempting to hide our findings from
him; I answered that this was exactly the attitude prevalent here.
At the end he became quite friendly and joined freely in further talks.
In the Soviet Union there are two groups experimenting with
electro-anesthesia. The one where I was visiting, and another at
Kiev. There seemed to be quite a rivalry between the two, but they
both agreed on the new wave form being used.
This new approach is called " interfering current", so named
because it consists of four electrodes sending in two separate sine
wave signals, in a criss-cross manner. rexample if one oscillator
is putting out 1000 cps the other might be set for 1300 cps or
2250 cps, etc. The important thing was to keep the second frequency
within 100-300 cps of the beat of the first frequency. I will de-
scribe this more fully shortly.
At the meeting, the paper dealt with human usage at the First
Medical Institute of Moscow and it was presented by Dr. V. D.
Schoskovsky and Dr. V. I. Schaskov. They reported over 200 operations
on human patients using "interfering current" and gave the results,
which were quite favorable. The instrument is being used routinely
in their hospital, although it is definitely still considered in the
experimental stage and is not in use throughout the entire country
as we had been led to believe here. In fact their institution, one
other in Moscow and one in Kiev are the only ones doing human work
at the present time. They do expect several more institutions to
start using it as quickly as they get the personnel trained.
Dr. Deryabena reported on the development of the "interfering
current" by the engineers at the institute. She did not mention
animal work, presumably because it had taken place years ago. In
private conversation she said most of their experimental work had
been done on primates. She said that although they were convinced
that "interfering current" was by far the best method they had
tried, they were not completely satisfied, and research would go
forward using new methods as quickly as their scientists could de-
velop instrumentation. From the talk, I gathered financing was not
a problem in this area.
The basic idea of the criss-crossing of electrodes in a
temporal-occipital arrangement is to make the brain do the work of
sorting out the signals coming in. They could not state exactly
where this was taking place, and gave the impression they were far
more concerned in making it work clinically than in gathering tech-
nical information. They maintained that after it became operational,
there would be enough time to find out why it works.
Dr. Schoskovsky, who is responsible for electro-ancsthesia at
the First Medico. 1 Institute of Moscow, is an anesthesiologist. Be
and Dr. Schaskov, the chief of anesthesiology at the Institute met
with me after the papers were given.
We spent much time discussing medication during electro-
anesthesia. Because of difficulty with interpretation we could not
get together on what we were talking about. Interestingly enough,
when we left the Institute the doctors were quite adept at English
and we then were successful in exchanging information. The insti-
tute has been using the "interfering current" for approximately one
year in over 350 operations to date, although they only reported on
200. They are quite satisfied with it, but would like to have easier
methods of inducing electro-anesthesia, and felt some more advanced
wave form might bring about the desired results with less physiolog-
ical change than is presently the case. At this time they use between
70-100 ma on each pair of electrodes. They monitor the resulting
wave form from the patient with an oscilloscope. They do not monitor
output of the instrument. I explained we were mixing our wave form
in the machine, and they stated that this defeated the entire purpose
of the mix; in other words the brain must be forced to do the work.
I expressed a desire to see the instrument in operation if possible,
assuming it would be used on.an animal, if anything. They talked for
two or three minutes and said they would pick me up the following
morning for a demonstration.
SURGERY
When I arrived at the hospital in the morning I was quite sur-
prised to learn the demonstration was to be on a male patient. To
me this indicated a great deal of confidence in the procedure and
equipment. They had arranged this in a matter of minutes. The
operation scheduled was the surgical removal of the thymus in a
patient with myasthenia gravis. The subject, a Soviet man, was
'about 35-40 years old. He was given a very short-acting (the effect
lasted only three minutes) curare type drug and a local in the vi-
cinity of the electrodes. They said that while they, on occasion;
do give a light tranquilizer the day before an operation, and some-
times on the same morning, they had not done so in this case. The
man was fully awake and talking while I was in the operating room.
During the three minute period he was intubated and electrodes were
emplaced. The current was turned up gradually (automatically from
both oscillators at one time) until approximately 50 ma was reached.
The frequencies were 1250 cps and 1500 cps, it apparently makes no
difference which electrodes carry which frequency. At this point
(about 5-7 minutes) the subject's eyes were still open but in a
fixed position. He could almost clench his fist on request. The
current was turned up slowly to 70 ma at which time there was no
, ,f1)
response on the part of the subject. Surgery was started approximately
20-25 minutes after admission to the operating room. Respiration and
blood pressure were constantly checked by a technician. There was a
slight rise in blood pressure on induction, but it leveled off shortly.
Respiration remained fairly constant, except for the first few minutes
while the curare was still in effect, no oxygen was given during the
operation.
They reported that physiologic accommodation to the current us-
ually occuxed at about 30 minutes and this would be evidenced by a
slight movement in the hands. It happened at 35 minutes; at this
point the current was increased by 10 ma. Despite shouting by the
anesthesiologist, the patient did not respond in any way. During
the course of the operation, which lasted 2 hours and 30 minutes,
the current was increased to 150 ma. The instrument being used was
one of their old prototypes and they claimed to have newer and vastly
improved models at the Research Institute which would do a much better
job. Dr. Schaskov was not sure of the amount of current really being
used, and after looking at the condition of the machine I could share
his opinion. He apologized, saying that it was all set up so quickly
for me that they didn't have time to get the other instrument hack.
They have much information about the values needed, so were not con-
cerned.
At the conclusion df the operation the current was gradually
lowered and when it reached approximately 20 ma the subject started
to blink his eyes. The instrument was turned off and within two min-
utes the patient would obey directions to look to the left or right
with his eyes. At five minutes his eyes were clear and at 10 minutes
he could answer questions verbally. Saliva became a severe problem
shortly after termination and atropine was administered. The endo-
tracheal tube was left in place during the saliva difficulties and
was removed at about the 10 minute mark at which point the problem
had been corrected. He was quickly returned to his room and placed
on the electro-sleep machine.- I questioned this since I had been
told 20 treatments were necessary for therapeutic value. They replied
that it was not necessary in this type of case, they just wanted to
relax the individual, and that when the subject was in a deteriorated
condition the electro-sleep seemed to have more effect.
I saw him again the following morning, and through the inter-
preter he said he did not feel or remember anything. The doctors
said a few people claim to remember events and five individuals
(of the 200) reported headaches the following day. They also re-
ported two cases of post-operative shock which they attributed to
surgery rather than the anesthesia. They were not at all convinced
one could remember anything after surgery, but thought it could be
imagination, stating they get an even higher percentage who claim
to remember events after surgery with conventional anesthesia.
13
In discussion after the operation, the following points were
brought out by Dr. Kuzin: he feels relaxation is generally as good
as what they get with ether inhalation or intravenous anesthesia or
combinations of both. They have performed practically all types of
surgery, including abdominal. The nor-adrenalin value is slightly
higher than with ether, the cortico-steriod level is the same as
with drugs. A slight rise in blood pressure is usually seen. He
feels electro-anesthesia is indicated in all bypotensive cases, and
agrees that hypertensive individuals should be tranquilized, or
given the standard pre-anesthesia treatment which is normally carried
out. He stated that their new machine is used normally at one site,
and receives considerable usage. They are having another built with
capacity for 200 ma.
When I asked how they secure volunteers for this procedure, he
stated they may use the instrument on anyone in the hospital and no
permission is required. He said it is a teaching institution and
patients are eager to go there because they know the finest doctors
are on the staff, preferring it to the new hospitals for that reason.
He stated that the patients respected and trusted the physicians to
use the best treatment and methods for their cases. He pointed out
further that very few unfavorable resurts were reported by the patients.
He said the procedure Is still being evaluated, and will be for
some time to come. He hopes with more refinements they may be able
to get away from any nor-adrenalin change, etc. He stated in answer
to a question that there was opposition from some doctors who just
didn't like the use of electricity in any form, but that since all
the directors were in favor of it, they had no choice but to go along.
SUMMARY
In the Soviet Union there are presently three institutions
using electro-anesthesia for human subjects. Two of these insti-
tutions are located in Moscow and the third in Kiev. Humans have
had surgery performed while under electro-anesthesia since 1960,
but the discovery of "interfering current" with the use of four
electrodes two years ago has brought it along more quickly since
then. Over 350 patients have been operated on at the First Medical
Institute-of Moscow using this method. Practically all types of
surgery have been performed, although the best results are obtained
where there is hypotension.
Conjunctive drugs, such as curare, are used if needed. Tran-
quilizers are given quite often the day before and the day of the
surgery, if the surgeon or anesthesiologist feels they are indicated.
Nor-adrenalin and cortico-steriod levels are raised from pre-
24
operative values. The use of direc; current has been totally aban-
chned because of morphological chances occuring in the brain; they
have not found these changes using the "interfering current".
I, despite being up to date on all work being done in this
country, could add absolutely nothing to their knowledge of the
field. The only area where I was ahead of them came in the re-
cording of EEG during electro-anesthesia. They have not been suc-
cessful in doing this as yet and are quite anxious to get any in-
formation I can supply.
Other than the actual operation itself the most impressive
thing was the quick manner in which it was arranged. No backup
material was evident, and the surgeons showed complete confidence
in the technique. I feel it was significant that they were so willing
to allow me to observe their technique that they did everything pos-
sible to give me all the assistance I wished. I was in the operating
room from the time the patient was brought in until he was taken to
his room post-surgery. I am 100% convinced the only anesthetic used
was electro-anesthesia.
GENERAL REMARKS
It is my impression that in the Soviet Union electro-sleep is an
established form of therapy. This is not yet the case in other Euro-
pean countries which I visited, where there is a great deal of in-
terest but not enough results reported to justify any conclusions as
yet.
The fact that workers in electro-sleep are having difficulty ac-
quiring financing from the government, while those engaged in electro-
anesthesia are not, reflects the official attitude. While it would be
easy to deduce from this that the Soviets do not feel electro-sleep
is worth any more money, I do not believe this to be the case. Rather,
I feel it indicates the thought that money should not be channeled into
an established method, but should go to research in other fields.
It would not be difficult to dismiss electro-sleep as another
form of "quackery",and indeed this has been done in the United States;
however .I must accept the fact that all the scientists, surgeons and
psychiatrists to whom I addressed myself seem honestly convinced of
the routine use of this form of therapy. It is inconceivable to me
that they are all mistaken.
There is a very sharp delineation between workers in the field
of sleep and anesthesia. While each is generally aware of what the
other is doing, at no time would scientists engaged in investigating
one field talk about the other.
15
My impression from talking with doctors attending the conference
at the Institute is that electro-anesthesia will he used in many
Soviet hospitals in the not distant future. There arc two main draw-
backs at the present time. First, not enough anesthesiologists are
trained in this method, and second, the instrumentation is not yet
generally available. While "electrosohn" has been released for pro-
duction, the electro-anesthesia apparatus has not. Since it is still
in the area of experimentation this may take some time. It is of
course difficult to justify training personnel to use equipment, if
the equipment will not be readily available.
The trip made me more aware than ever of the need for improved
channels of communication in the scientific community. In the spe-
cific field of electro-anesthesia it could possibly have saved sev-
eral years of work, which must be regarded as almost fruitless, if
the information gathered is correct. .This lack of communication
has permitted our scientists to work long hours using a Soviet ap-
proach to the problem of electro-anesthesia, which the Soviets aban-
doned as completely unworkable four years ago. Brain damage as a
result of its use has been proved.
The possibility was discussed of setting up a central location
for collection of data on a monthly or quarterly basis, and, at the
.very least, sending out a bulletin abstracting current information.
The Soviets were most enthusiastic about cooperating in such a ven-
ture. I feel this could be of tremendous assistance to our programs
and should be followed up., If this type of program would work out
successfully in this field, perhaps it would be adopted in other
areas also.
I feel it would also be in our best interests if we could de-
velop some sort of coordination and information exchange between
groups in this country. NatUrally we could not interfere with ori-
ginal research, but perhaps if knowledge was diageminated more ra-
pidly and accurately between scientists, the work would progress
more quickly.
)
July 2, 1965