Automated External Defibrillators on Aircraft A U.S. airline equipped its aircraft with automated external defibrillators, and over two years, the devices were applied to 200 patients by flight attendants trained in their use. Thirteen of the 14 patients who had ventricular fibrillation had successful defibrillation with the first shock (defibrillation was withheld in 1 patient at the family's request), and 40 percent survived to hospital discharge.

Postoperative Adjuvant Therapy for Stage II or IIIa Non­Small-Cell Lung Cancer In a multicenter trial, 242 patients with non­small-cell cancer were randomly assigned to receive postoperative radiotherapy alone and 246 to receive radiotherapy combined with cisplatin and etoposide. In all patients, the tumor was completely resected but metastases were present in draining lymph nodes. The median survival in the two groups was virtually identical: 39 months in the radiotherapy group and 38 months in the combined-treatment group.

Effects of Intrathecal Morphine on the Ventilatory Response to Hypoxia Morphine administered intrathecally has a potent analgesic action, but it also depresses respiration. To determine whether this depression is a central or peripheral effect, the respiratory responses to intrathecal morphine (0.3 mg) and intravenous morphine (0.14 mg per kilogram of body weight) were studied in 30 normal men. The ventilatory response to hypercapnia was reduced only by intrathecal morphine. The ventilatory response to hypoxia was reduced by both intravenous and intrathecal morphine, but the effect of intrathecal morphine lasted much longer.