The introduction of anesthesia to Cuba was officially reported with the successful use of inhaled ether on March 11, 1947, in the capital city, La Habana, by the Cuban doctor Vicente Antonio De Castro y Bermúdez.1 Even earlier, work by Pio Manual Martínez Curbelo in 1937 demonstrated a novel approach to regional anesthesia in blocking the brachial plexus in the sitting position, in order to have better access to the plexus with less of a chance of puncturing the lung.2 In 1947, he later published work describing the use of a catheter for a continuous epidural block.
Cuban medicine has advanced considerably over the past few decades and has been recognized for work in neurosciences, oncology, cardiology, tropical medicine, disaster medicine, immunology, epidemiology and infectious diseases. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), in their State of the World Population Statistics 2006,...
