Before there was anesthesia as we know it today, the Greeks in ancient times used opium, mandrake and even asphyxiation by strangulation to produce sedation or unconsciousness during surgery, meanwhile the Chinese were using acupuncture and freezing as techniques for get numbness in some parts of the body.
Only until the nineteenth century began to use nitrous oxide and the first anesthetic ether-based during surgery, and 16 October 1846 was the first public demonstration of surgical anesthesia, when William Morton administered ether to a patient in Massachusets General Hospital, United States.
Anesthesiology since then has become a practice that aims to relieve pain during surgery and disease.
It could be described as the branch of medicine responsible for keeping the patient to a state of insensitivity to pain to Do a surgical, therapeutic or diagnostic procedure under the best possible conditions. Part of the work of the anesthesiologist is to select and administer appropriate medications and safe procedures for performing a restorative effect on the patient.
However, anesthesiology goes beyond administering drugs to produce analgesia, sedation and sleep; It is considered an art and a science that links physiology, pharmacology, pathology and surgery in a unique way in the care of the sick.
This approach is part of what is today known as perioperative and critical care medicine.
According to Dr Peter Rock, professor of anesthesiology at the University of Maryland, United States, "Perioperative medicine is the practice that covers all aspects of the care of a patient, which starts from the decision to operate it, until when he is discharged from the hospital and even beyond". Thanks to this approach, people currently undergo operations with higher levels of security.
The anesthesiologist is also responsible for all patients Give you a consultation for preoperative evaluation in inpatient and outpatient, in which cardio-circulatory, neurological, pulmonary and psychological to mitigate, through explanations, stress generated by the intervention aspects are analyzed.
This work has been possible thanks to the great advances in drug development, techniques, equipment and anesthetic monitoring the medical industry. Anesthesia machines have evolved from a single tire to a sophisticated computer-based anesthetic system and electronic circuit device.
Even today many people think that the anesthesiologist is not a doctor, or only dedicated to sleeping patients, few anesthesiologists imagine soothing the pain of women in childbirth, treating patients in Units Critical Care, treating the chronic pain, serving burns, cardiac arrest and all kinds of events very seriously.
On the World Day of Anesthesiology, I want to congratulate all my colleagues who care daily lives of patients and ensure their safety and welfare.
Dr. Luis Gonzalez Perez
Specialist Anesthesiology
The clinic San Carlos Office Denia
