Ouch! The Medical World Before Anesthesia

General anesthesia is performed in three stages. The first is to induce a state of unconsciousness, also called induction, followed by keeping the state of unconsciousness, and then allowing the state of consciousness to take over again. Right from the 13^th century, alcohols in the form of brandy and wine were used for inducing numbness. Opium was one of the substances that have been traced in prehistoric Swiss natives as well as in Egypt. It was considered a powerful anesthetic of the time. The word “anesthesia” was first used by Dioscorides , a Greek physician in AD 40, for describing this phenomenon of unconsciousness.

Before wine and opium were discovered as anesthetics, Chinese practitioners employed acupuncture. This involved inserting needles at specific locations on the body to induce numbness. In those times, surgery used to be the dreadful last resort. Smoking of Indian hemp was also popular in reducing the effect of pain. In ancient India, a substance called henbane was also used. Ancient anesthetics mainly consisted of herbal substances known by the names of narcotics, soporific or anodynes, taking into consideration whether the substance simply relieved pain or rendered the person unconscious.

Some doctors have been known to use morphine to reduce the pain during surgery. Patients had to be strapped or tied down so that the surgery could be performed. They could only scream and beg and many would faint from the pain itself. Surgery on a conscious patient was something that had to be done even though the patient felt tremendous pain. Doctors had to work quickly to perform these surgeries so the patient would't die of blood loss. The mortality rate rose exponentially during this time due to the shock arising from the excruciating pain in the organs being operated. Many patients also died from infection since the concept of germs was unknown back then. The introduction of effective anesthetic substances during the 19 ^th century allowed medical surgeons to operate deliberately and calmly on a patient, allowing time and sensibilities to take priority rather than getting overwhelmed by the agony of the patient.

The use of different types of anesthetics began long ago but the use of ether only came about when William Morton recommended the use of ether to Gilbert Abbott on October 16^th in 1846 at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. After many years of research, it was the first time when a patient could be rendered unconscious within minutes for a surgical procedure. In this case, the patient had a neck tumor which had to be removed. After 1920, intravenous agents were used that allowed the patients to lose consciousness fast and in a pleasant manner. Other substances were also introduced around 1940.

Wi th modern day techniques, anesthesia has become extremely safe. The dea th rate is less than one in more than several hundred thousand cases. Today's anesthetic substances and machine come equipped wi th numerous functions such as those that allow monitoring of the patients BP, oxygen level in the blood, rate of respiration, heartbeat, carbon dioxide as well as anesthetic vapors.