The advent of anesthesia was a revolutionary turning point in the history of medicine. We look at the evolution of anesthesia, which went beyond simple pain relief to improve the precision of surgery and the quality of life for patients.
From ancient to modern medicine, there have been many developments in the history of medicine, but anesthesia is by far one of the most remarkable. Medicine is gradually evolving from a doctor-centered system to a patient-centered system, and the trend is from medicine as a science to medicine as an art. Anesthesia is the starting point of this change. The difference between anesthesiology and other fields of medicine is that anesthesiology is not intended to treat a specific disease, but to promote patient comfort as a means of surgery. In other words, anesthesia is not an end in itself, but a tool for surgery. Therefore, anesthesia is not essential in technology-oriented medicine, but it plays a more important role than any other medical technique in modern patient-centered medicine.
Anesthesia is not only about eliminating pain during surgery. It also plays an important role in improving the patient’s overall experience before and after surgery and in maintaining the patient’s physiological stability during surgery. Anesthesia allows the patient to avoid unnecessary stress during surgery, which has a positive impact on the speed and outcome of recovery after surgery. In addition, advances in anesthesia technology have made it possible to perform complex surgeries, allowing for the successful completion of a variety of surgeries that were previously impossible.
Let’s take a brief look at the history of anesthesiology, which has reached such an important status, and look at the types of anesthesia used today.
In movies set in the Middle Ages, you can see scenes in which surgery is performed using alcohol to treat wounds. If these methods are included in anesthesia, it is not clear what the first anesthetic was, but it is recorded that William Morton performed the first painless surgery using general anesthesia in 1846. Since the late 18th century, physicians have wondered if they could induce changes in the human body by inhaling gaseous substances and began to study the physiological functions of various gases. As a result of this research, doctors learned that nitrous oxide and ether had anesthetic effects. Previous surgeries were limited in precision and time due to the need to consider the patient’s pain, but the discovery of general anesthesia led to the rapid development of surgical procedures.
William Morton’s discovery of general anesthesia was a major innovation in the medical world, and it meant important changes not only in the technical aspects of surgery, but also in the ethical aspects. Reducing patient pain during surgery is not just a technical issue, but a matter of human dignity, so the development of anesthesia has contributed greatly to raising the ethical standards of medicine.
As many people know, anesthesia is broadly divided into general anesthesia and regional anesthesia. General anesthesia is a method of eliminating pain by causing the patient to lose consciousness, and various anesthetics are administered to the central nervous system. Anesthesia is divided into inhalation anesthesia and intravenous anesthesia, depending on the method of administration. Inhalation anesthesia is a method of inhaling gas, and intravenous anesthesia is an invasive method of administering anesthetics directly into the blood.
Regional anesthesia is a method that blocks the nerve pathway without causing the patient to lose consciousness, thereby eliminating pain in the desired area. Although the patient’s mental stability may be reduced because the patient is awake, it has the advantage of causing less pain after surgery and fewer side effects than general anesthesia. Regional anesthesia is divided into spinal anesthesia, epidural anesthesia, and local anesthesia, depending on the area being anesthetized. Spinal anesthesia is a method of blocking pain in the lower half of the body by injecting anesthetic into the area near the spinal cord, and is primarily used for lower abdominal and lower extremity surgery. Epidural anesthesia is a method of injecting anesthetic into the epidural space around the spine and is primarily used to relieve pain during childbirth. Local anesthesia is a method of anesthetizing only a specific area of the body and is widely used for minor surgical procedures and dental treatments.
In 2002, the Korean name of the department was changed to the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, which shows that the field of anesthesiology has expanded from the narrow meaning of “how to reduce pain during surgery” to a broader meaning of “pain in the human body and everything related to it”. In recent years, not only localized and temporary pain, but also chronic pain has come under the category of anesthesiology, showing that anesthesia can be an alternative when the cause of pain cannot be permanently eliminated. In addition, anesthesiology plays an important role in various areas such as patient management before and after surgery, intensive care, and pain management. This shift indicates that anesthesia is evolving from simply eliminating pain during surgery to improving the overall health and quality of life of patients.
As long as people need medicine, the importance of anesthesiology will not diminish. Anesthesia, which was the first step in patient-centered medicine, will remain one of the most important fields of medicine in the future. The development of anesthesia will keep pace with the overall development of medicine and will continue to play a key role in providing better medical services to patients.
