Manuel Martínez Curbelo

Biographical Timeline

• Born June 20, 1906 in Nueva Paz (then province of La Habana)
• 1923 – Awarded Bachiller en Ciencias y Letras, Instituto de Segunda Enseñanza de La Habana. Entered Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, University of Havana.
• 1929 – Graduated Doctor en Medicina (MD), University of Havana.
• 1931 – Appointed Médico anestesista at Hospital Universitario “General Calixto García”, Havana.
• 1933 – Proposed a modification of the supraclavicular brachial plexus block (Kulenkampff technique).
• 1942 – Began using single-shot lumbar epidural (peridural) anaesthesia in Havana.
• 1944 Jun 29 – Reported experience with single-shot epidural anaesthesia (648 cases) at a surgical meeting in Havana (with Pérez Valdez and Mesa Quiñones).
• 1946 Nov – Undertook a Mayo Clinic visit and observed Edward B. Tuohy using his directional needle for catheter techniques.
• 1947 (Jan 13) – First continuous lumbar epidural via ureteral catheter into the lumbar epidural space for surgery on a 40-year-old woman with a giant ovarian cyst, Havana.
• 1948 – Lecture/demonstration tour in the USA.
• 1949 – Published his lumbar epidural technique and became widely recognised as pioneer of continuous lumbar epidural anaesthesia.
• 1949 – Participated in the First Latin American Congress of Anesthesiology, Buenos Aires
• 1950 (Sep 12) – Founding of the Sociedad Nacional de Anestesiología (later Sociedad Cubana de Anestesiología y Reanimación). Elected Vice-president, later President (1954).
• 1954 – Delivered courses on continuous epidural applications (labour analgesia, vascular disease, pancreatitis, renal colic).
• 1955 – At the first International Congress in Scheveningen (Netherlands), the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists (WFSA) was founded. Martínez Curbelo elected first Vice-President.
• Died May 1, 1962 at Hospital Universitario “Gral. Calixto García,” Havana, from non-traumatic intraparenchymal cerebral haemorrhage; buried at Cementerio Cristóbal Colón.

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Key Medical Contributions

Continuous lumbar epidural catheter technique (1947–1949)

1944 – On June 29, Martínez Curbelo presented his experience with single-shot “anestesia extradural segmentaria” involving 648 cases with 2% procaine, at the Cuban National Surgical Society meeting. This provided the clinical foundation for his later “continuous” concept.

1946 – In November he visited the Mayo Clinic and observed Edward Boyce Tuohy (1908-1959) using a directional needle (Tuohy Needle adapted to a Huber point) to pass ureteral catheters. Curbelo recognised its potential for lumbar epidural catheter placement.

On January 13, 1947 – First reported lumbar epidural catheter placement for continuous peridural anaesthesia on a 40-year-old woman undergoing laparotomy for a giant ovarian cyst at the Hospital Municipal (“Freyre de Andrade”). He identified the epidural space using loss of resistance, threaded a No. 3.5 ureteral catheter into the lumbar peridural space through the special Huber-pointed Tuohy needle, and injected 15 mL of 1% procaine.

On January 26, 1947 – Reported the technique to the Surgical Society at the Annual Congress of Cuban Surgeons in Havana in a paper titled “Anestesia peridural continua segmentaria con catéter ureteral utilizando la aguja de Tuohy calibre 16 con punta de Huber.”

On September 9, 1947 – Presented at the 22nd Joint Annual Congress of the International Anesthesia Research Society and International College of Anesthetists, New York his paper “Continuous peridural segmental anesthesia by means of a uretheral catheter.” published in 1949

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Major Publications

• Martínez Curbelo M. Nueva técnica de anestesia del plexo braquial. Ventajas de esta anestesia regional en cirugía ortopédica. Cirugía Ortopedia & Trauma. 1933;1: 87-106.
• Martinez Curbelo M. Anestesia peridural continua segmentaria con cateter ureteral utlizando la aguja de Tuohy caliber 16 con punta de Huber. Reunion Anual de Cirujanos Cubanos. La Havana, Enero 26. 1947.
• Martínez Curbelo M. Continuous peridural segmental anesthesia by means of a ureteral catheter. Curr Res Anesth Analg. 1949 Jan-Feb;28(1):13-23

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References

Biography

• Aldrete JA, Cabrera HS, Wright AJ. Manuel Martinez Curbelo and continuous lumbar epidural anesthesia. Bull Anesth Hist. 2004 Oct;22(4):1, 4-8.
• Revista Cubana de Anestesiología y Reanimación 2017; 16(2) Ciudad de la Habana
• Parte de la historia de Sociedad Cubana de Anestesiología y Reanimación, Revista Cubana de Anestesiología y Reanimación 2022