Anaesthesia is a Greek term whish refers to ‘minus feeling’ and analgesia refers to ‘without pain’. The modern anaesthesia is thought to date from 16th October 1846, when a Boston dentist called William Morton administered ether successfully to a young man whose operation for a tumor on his neck was done before an assembly of prominent medical men at the Massachusetts medical hospital (Stoelting, 2001). During those days, the world experienced slow communication. However, despite the slowness of communication during that time, the rate of spread of anaesthesia across the globe was remarkable. Ether had been applied in England for dental extractions by December 19th, 1846. John Snow followed this up in 1847 by becoming the first professional anaesthetist and a prominent personality in early anaesthesia to write a book about ether. In the same year 1847, a professor of midwifery in Edinburgh, James Simpson pioneered the use of chloroform as an anaesthesia agent in obstetrics. During that period, anaesthesia had experienced spirited rejection especially from religious quarters. John Snow managed to overcome religious and other oppositions against anaesthesia when he administered chloroform in 1853 to Queen Victoria at the birth of King Leopold. For the next 100 years, ether and chloroform were to remain the most popular anaesthesia agents. In 1951, Halothane was synthesized by suckling and its first use publication actualizing in 1956 (Simpson, 2001).
The application of nitrous oxide as an anaesthesia agent had some instances of success during those times. However, when Wells demonstrated unsuccessfully its use in 1845, at the Massachusetts General hospital, its weaknesses as an agent and difficulties in devising equipment led to virtual disappearance form the anaesthesia scene for some years. Its popularity began to regain when Joseph Clover, a prominent early proponent of anaesthesia, applied it as a relatively pleasant induction before ether anaesthesia (Stoelting, 2001).
Klikovitch of St Petersburg was the first to use nitrous oxide to relieve pain at childbirth in 1880 (Dowd, 2001). He became popular at the introduction in 1934 of Minnitts nitrous oxide-air machine. The mixture of these gases and air, are now obsolete and Entonox now provides inhalational analgesia in labor. Tunstall was the first to describe it and 1961; the British Oxygen Company produced it. The introduction of muscle relaxant drugs has since seen the overall importance of nitrous oxide in anaesthesia. This is because nitrous oxide agent gives excellent operating conditions under light, general anaesthesia (Stoelting, 2008).
Local analgesia was discovered in 1884 when the effect of cocaine applied typically to the eye was described by Koller. In 1899, Bier carried out for the first time a spinal analgesia for a surgical operation. In 1901, Sicard and Cathelin of France carried out the first epidurals independently. The lumbar approach was used for the first time to the epidural space in 1921 by Fidel Pages, a Spanish Military surgeon (Stoelting, 2008). The Dean of London hospital had since 1907 used continuously used spinal analgesia. However, the 1940s marks the real interests in continuous regional techniques, when continuous spinal analgesia through a malleable needle was performed by Lemmon. The first continuous spinal analgesia through a catheter introduced a needle was developed in 1945 by Tuohy. Tuohy also designed during the following year, a needle with a tip specially designed for the purpose (Simpson, 2001).
Hingson and Southworth of the United States were the first to carry out continuous lumbar epidurals using malleable needles. Curbelo of Havana became the first to use a ureteric catheter to carry out continuous epidural analgesia with the help of Tuohy needle. Since the late 18th Century, tracheal intubations have been used as a means of resuscitation using tubes made of metals covered with leather (Simpson, 2001). It was until McEwen of Glasgow used for the first time a tracheal tube for giving anaesthesia in 1880. The 1960s marked the era of modern anaesthesia as a result of new drugs being developed and accessibility of new techniques and equipments to monitor (Stoelting, 2008).
In sum, the technical advances brought about the evolution of technical anaesthesis. This paper has discussed the origin of anaesthesia to the modern anaesthesia.
References
- Dowd, M. (2001). The History of Medication for Women. Philadelphia: Informa Health Care.
- Simpson, Popat, & Carrie. (2001). Understanding Anaesthesia. Sydney: Elsevier Health Sciences.
- Stoelting, Hines, & Marchal. (2008). Stoelting’s Anaesthesia and Coexisting Disease. Sydney: Elsevier Health Sciences.