Anaesthetic

An anaesthetic (British English) or anesthetic (American English) is a drug used to induce a temporary loss of sensation or awareness in a patient.

God performed the first ever surgical operation a long time ago when he removed one of Adam's ribs to create Eve. The Book of Genesis states that the surgery was done under an anesthetic, as God caused “a deep sleep to fall upon the man."

The Chinese physician Hua T'o was the first doctor known to perform surgery under general anesthetic in about 200 AD. The potion, which rendered his patients unconscious was a mixture of hemp and strong wine called ma fei san.

The explorer Sir Walter Raleigh was traveling down the River Orinoco in South America in 1595. Raleigh was interested in medicine and while exploring the river he reported on the arrow poison the local Indians use which paralyzes the victim. He noted it is a syrup from a creeper, and could be used as an anesthetic.

In about 1844, American dentist William T. G. Morton became associated with the American scientist Charles Thomas Jackson. Morton learned of Jackson’s experiments with sulfuric ether as an anesthetic and conducted a number of tests. In 1846 he publicly used ether first when extracting a tooth and later in removing a neck tumor. 

The first use of ether as an anesthetic in 1846 by Morton

News of William Morton's discovery of the anesthetic properties of ether reached Europe in late 1846, despite his efforts to keep his compound a secret. So a few months after Morton’s demonstration in Europe, the London surgeon Robert Liston performed the first operation under ether anesthetic amputating the diseased thigh of a patient under ether in under two and a half minutes. He referred to the anesthetic method as a “Yankee dodge”.

It was Oliver Wendell Holmes, the philosopher and literary figure and the professor of Anatomy at Harvard University who coined the expression “anaesthesia”, (from the Greek for "no feeling") for the state induced by the new gases in 1847.

In 1853 Queen Victoria allowed herself to be chloroformed to diminish the pains of childbirth whilst giving birth to her seventh child. When anesthesia was first used for this purpose a few years previously, churchmen, who of course were all males, objected quoting God’s words to Eve in the Book of Genesis, “in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children”. However none of these principled churchmen had the courage to reprimand the Queen, which put a stop to their criticism.

In 1885 William Halsted introduced the first local anesthetic, which he administered by injecting cocaine it into the nerve. Unfortunately due to the nature of his self-experimentation with the drug, he fell into a cocaine addiction, which it took him two years to overcome.

Novocaine is a local anesthetic drug also known as procaine. It was created by the German scientist Alfred Einhorn (1857-1917) in 1905 and was the first man-made pain-killer that could be taken as a shot. It is used today primarily to reduce the pain of intramuscular injection of penicillin, and also by some dentists.

 In 2012 doctors around the world voted the 1846 paper describing anesthesia as the most important discovery in modern medicine, ahead of things like antibiotics and X-Rays.

Procaine application before removal of a decayed tooth

Due to the octopus's intelligence, they and all other cephalopods are the only invertebrates that need to be anesthetized before surgery.

Researchers have discovered that the most humane way to anesthetize octopuses is by dunking them in ethanol — a procedure with no lasting side effects.

General anesthesia is not simply a deep sleep. EEG (electroencephalography) readings, show that even the deepest sleep is not as deep as the lightest general anesthesia. General anesthesia EEG patterns are most similar to a comatose brain. General anesthesia is essentially a “reversible coma.”

In 2002 it was reported that people with red hair require 20 per cent more anesthetic before surgery than people with hair of another color.

General anesthesia is a complex process that involves the interaction of multiple drugs and systems in the body. Scientists still don't fully understand how general anesthesia works, but they have several theories.

One theory is that general anesthetics work by depressing the central nervous system. This can cause a decrease in consciousness, a loss of pain sensation, and a decreased response to stimuli. Another theory is that general anesthetics work by blocking nerve signals. This can prevent pain signals from reaching the brain, and it can also cause muscle relaxation.