From ancient to modern times, the development of anesthesia has led to a paradigm shift in medicine from doctor-centered to patient-centered and from technology to art, combining surgical sophistication with patient comfort.
From ancient to modern medicine, there have been many advances in the history of medicine, but anesthesia is arguably one of the most remarkable. Medicine is increasingly moving from a physician-centered system to a patient-centered system, and from medicine as science to medicine as art. Anesthesiology is the starting point of this transformation. What distinguishes anesthesiology from other branches of medicine is that it does not aim to cure a specific disease, but rather to make patients comfortable as a means to an end – in other words, anesthesia is a tool for surgery, not an end in itself. So while anesthesia is not essential in technology-driven medicine, it is more important than any other part of modern, patient-centered medicine.
The importance of anesthesia goes beyond simply eliminating pain during surgery; it also plays a key role in enhancing the overall patient experience before and after surgery, and in maintaining the patient’s physiological stability during surgery. Anesthesia ensures that patients do not experience unnecessary stress during surgery, which has a positive impact on the speed and outcome of post-operative recovery. Furthermore, advances in anesthesia technology have made complex surgeries possible, allowing for the successful performance of a variety of procedures that were previously impossible.
Let’s take a quick look back at the history of anesthesiology to see how it came to be so important, and then look at the types of anesthesia used today.
If you watch movies set in the Middle Ages, you’ll see surgeons using the power of alcohol to heal wounds. While it’s unclear what the first anesthesia was, including these methods, the first painless surgery using general anesthesia is credited to William Morton in 1846. Beginning in the late 18th century, doctors wondered if they could induce changes in the human body by inhaling gaseous substances, and they began to study the physiological functions of different gases. As a result of this research, they discovered that nitrous oxide, ether, and other gases had anesthetic effects. The discovery of general anesthesia allowed surgical procedures to advance at a rapid pace, as previous surgeries were limited in sophistication and time due to the patient’s pain.
William Morton’s discovery of general anesthesia revolutionized the world of medicine, and it marked an important change not just in the technical aspects of surgery, but also in the ethical aspects of surgery. Because reducing patient suffering during surgery is not just a technical matter, but a matter of human dignity, the development of anesthesia contributed significantly to raising the ethical standards of medicine.
As many people know, anesthesia is broadly divided into general and regional anesthesia. General anesthesia is a method of eliminating pain by rendering a patient unconscious, and involves the administration of various anesthetic drugs to the central nervous system. Depending on how the anesthetic is administered, it is divided into inhalation anesthesia and intravenous anesthesia: inhalation anesthesia involves inhaling a gas, while intravenous anesthesia is an invasive method of administering anesthetic directly into the blood.
Regional anesthesia is a way to eliminate pain in the desired area by blocking neurotransmission pathways without rendering the patient unconscious. Because the patient is awake, it can be less comfortable, but it has the advantage of less postoperative pain and fewer side effects than general anesthesia. Regional anesthesia is divided into spinal, epidural, and local anesthesia depending on the area being anesthetized. Spinal anesthesia blocks pain in the lower half of the body by injecting anesthetic medicine into an area close to the spinal cord, and is often used for lower abdominal and lower extremity surgery. Epidural anesthesia involves injecting anesthetic into the epidural space around the spine and is often used to relieve pain during labor and delivery. Regional anesthesia is a method of anesthetizing only a specific area of the body, and is widely used for small surgical procedures and dental work.
In 2002, the Department of Anesthesiology was renamed the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine in South Korea, which shows that anesthesiology has expanded from the narrow meaning of “how to reduce pain in surgery” to a broader meaning that covers “pain in the human body and everything related to it. More recently, chronic pain, as well as localized and temporary pain, has come under the umbrella of anesthesiology, showing that anesthesia can be an alternative when the cause of pain cannot be permanently eliminated. In addition, anesthesiologists play an important role in a variety of fields, including patient care before and after surgery, critical care, and pain management. These changes indicate that anesthesia is evolving from simply eliminating pain during surgery to improving patients’ overall health and quality of life.
As long as humans need medicine, the importance of anesthesiology will not go away. As the first step in patient-centered medicine, anesthesia will remain one of the most important fields of medicine. Advances in anesthesia parallel the overall progress of medicine and will continue to play a key role in providing better healthcare for patients.
