History of anaesthesia
Anaesthesia today is the culmination of many earlier discoveries and events. Surgical procedures are not a recent development. The skeletal remains of our earliest ancestors – the European Neolithic man – display evidence of possible surgery with surgical burr holes in the head. It is likely that such an event was to let out evil spirits.
By the times of the Greeks and Romans, surgical procedures, albeit fairly minor, were taking place. In ancient India, surgery was well advanced with the development of surgical instruments and even plastic surgical procedures have been described. (The surgical reconstruction of an amputated nose by the use a rotational flap has been described.)
Around 900-1000 AD the Arabs in Andalusia were performing abdominal surgery. Islamic surgeons and physicians described many operations and medical procedures, including bladder stones and caesarean sections. The Islamic practice of medicine was a thousand years ahead of western medicine and much of what was claimed as new was a rediscovery of ancient techniques lost to the West.
- For more information download – The History of Anaesthesia
A list of important dates
| 500 | BC Opium analgesia described by Hippocrates | |
|---|---|---|
| 1544 | Ether synthesised | |
| 1596 | South American arrow poison described | |
| 1628 | Harvey describes the circulation | |
| 1665 | First IV injection of opium into a dog | |
| 1776 | Mesmer describes hypnosis | |
| 1772 | N2O discovered | |
| 1796 | Moore compresses nerves to produce local anaesthesia | |
| 1829 | Cloquet uses hypnosis for mastectomy | |
| 1847 | First veterinary treatment using anaesthesia, at Veterinary College London | |
| 1848 | First anaesthetic death. Hannah Greener aged 15 died after chloroform administration (she had had a toenail removed) | |
| 1853 | Invention of the hypodermic syringe and needle | |
| 1860 | Cocaine isolated | |
| 1863 | Popularisation of the use of N20 | |
| 1867 | Prof Lister introduces antiseptic surgery | |
| 1884 | Demonstration of the local anaesthetic properties of cocaine on the cornea | |
| 1894 | Harvey Cushing advocated the use of anaesthetic record charts | |
| 1898 | August Bier introduced “spinal anaesthesia” | |
| 1917 | Boyle’s anaesthetic machine, a N2O and O2 machine, first described | |
| 1920 | Magill and Rowbotham developed endotracheal anaesthesia | |
| 1929 | Fleming discovers that the mould Penicillium notatum inhibits bacteria | |
| 1930 | The circle absorption system introduced by Brian Sword | |
| 1932 | Association of anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland formed | |
| 1934 | Thiopentone popularised Australian Society of Anaesthetists formed |
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| 1939-42 | An ear oxygen meter developed and term oximeter coined | |
| 1940 | Preparation of an active and concentrated form of penicillin described | |
| 1945 | The American Society of Anaesthetists (ASA) formed | |
| 1942 | Muscle relaxants introduced | |
| 1951 | Halothane synthesised | |
| 1952 | Faculty of RACS formed Pin index system introduced |
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| 1973 | Prototype pulse oximeter used clinically | |
| 1983 | LMA use described | |
| 1984 | Propofol in soya bean oil introduced | |
| 1987 | First clinical use of desflurane |