Even taken at low doses, "tsusensan" - Seishu Hanaoka's herbally-based oral anaesthetic - was longer-acting than the vapours and gases used in the era of inhalation anaesthesia. Hanaoka performed a variery of surgical procedures; but he specialised in mastectomies in cases of breast cancer. Mastectomies could be life-saving; but they were an excruciating ordeal in the pre-anaesthetic era.

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Japan's Seishu Hanaoka
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