Video


Professor Sir Keith Sykes in interview with Lady Wendy Ball

Abstract

Professor Sykes, Nuffield professor of anaesthetics in Oxford, knighted in 1991, first talks of his family background, his childhood in Devon and Yorkshire and his medical studies at University College, London (which had moved to Bangor during the Second World War), Magdalene College, Cambridge, and University College Hospital from 1946-49. Professor Sykes then outlines his early career. House physician posts were followed by two years of national service in the RAMC with the British Army of the Rhein in Germany, where he was trained as an anaesthetist in Hamburg. He discusses his time in UCH where he completed his training for the Diploma in Anaesthesia and the Fellowship, and was influenced by figures such as Massey Dawkins, Bob Cope and Bernard Lucas. He describes his year as Rickman Godlee travelling scholar, based at Harry Beecher's department in the Massachusetts General Hospital, as a turning point because it gave him the opportunity to engage in research. Next, Professor Sykes reflects on his career at the Hammersmith, where he worked from 1958 to 1980; the innovations he made there and his research. He speaks of the six months he spent studying the impact of mechanical ventilation on neonates and adults with tetanus in Durban, South Africa, and collaborating with Philip Hugh-Jones and John West on their mass spectrometry studies on gas distribution in the lungs. Discussion of his innovations at the Hammersmith covers: setting up a resuscitation service and a blood-gas analysis service, opening a recovery unit in 1960 which became the first general intensive care unit in the UK, initiating the use of mechanical ventilation for open-heart surgery, and promoting mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Professor Sykes outlines his extensive research: on rebreathing during anaesthesia, on respiratory changes associated with thoracic surgery, on the extracorporeal circulation, on the physiology of mechanical ventilation and the causes of hypoxia during anaesthesia, and on the effects of drugs used in anaesthesia and intensive care on the pulmonary circulation. The interview moves on to Professor Sykes' move to Oxford, where he served as Nuffield Professor of Anaesthesia from 1980 to 1991. He talks of the difficulties of motivating and co-ordinating staff over several sites. However, he was able to establish a research base that attracted good students and grants and thrived on liaisons with other departments, and to set up a patient-controlled analgesia service for all the patients he anaesthetised. He then discusses his major publications and his visit to Finland in 1960 promoting and teaching about anaesthesia in a country where it was rare. In the final stages of the interview Professor Sykes ponders the key advances in anaesthesia and medicine over his lifetime and the personal highlights of his career.

Other description

University College Hospital; RAMC, Germany; anaesthetist education; Massey Dawkins; Bob Cope; Bernard Lucas; Massachusetts General Hospital; Harry Beecher; Hammersmith Hospital and Royal Postgraduate Medical School; Jimmy Payne; respiratory physiology; resuscitation; intensive care; mechanical ventilation and open-heart surgery; extracorporeal and pulmonary circulation; Nuffield department of anaesthetics, Oxford.

Subjects

Anaesthesia, Critical care (intensive care medicine), Pulmonary medicine (respiratory medicine),

Project reference numbers

vid-291, MSVA_159

DOI (Digital Object Identifier)

Permanent link to this resource: https://doi.org/10.24384/000432

Preview

Attached files

  • Type: Video Filename: OB_SYKES-BALL_04-03-97_4X3_133_SD_MX1-1631943.mp4 Size: 2154.85 MB Views (since Sept 2022): 85
  • Type: PDF Document Filename: Sykes,K.pdf Size: 197.72 KB Views (since Sept 2022): 80

Authors

Sykes, Keith
Ball, Wendy

Oxford Brookes departments

Learning Resources

Dates

Original artefact: 1997
RADAR resource: 2017

GeoLocations

Oxford, UK.


© Oxford Brookes University; The Royal College of Physicians; The Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland; The Royal College of Anaesthetists
Published by Oxford Brookes University
All rights reserved.


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This RADAR resource is Part of Medical Sciences Video Archive

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Details

  • Owner: Annabel Valentine
  • Collection: Archives
  • Version: 1 (show all)
  • Status: Live
  • Views (since Sept 2022): 258