Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-12T22:17:34.024Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

1 - Introduction: anaesthetic practice. Past and present

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2009

By
Brian Smith  and
Paul Wicker
Edited by
Brian Smith ,
Paul Rawling ,
Paul Wicker  and
Chris Jones
Brian Smith
Affiliation:
Edge Hill College of Higher Education, Liverpool
Paul Rawling
Affiliation:
Edge Hill College of Higher Education, Liverpool
Paul Wicker
Affiliation:
Edge Hill College of Higher Education, Liverpool
Chris Jones
Affiliation:
Edge Hill College of Higher Education, Liverpool
Get access

Summary

Key learning points

  • Understand historical events in anaesthesia

  • Explore the place of present-day changes in anaesthetic practice

  • Recognise the importance of evidence in developing a body of anaesthetic knowledge

  • Develop a reflective approach to anaesthetic practice

The past three centuries have brought many changes to the care of patients undergoing anaesthesia. Many of those changes have been at the hands of inspirational doctors who many now regard as pioneers of present-day anaesthesia.

Before anaesthesia, surgery was a traumatic event, full of pain and suffering of an unimaginable degree, which often led to patients' death. It is important to understand the horror and brutality of early surgery without anaesthesia, to understand the real value of anaesthesia today. It is hard to imagine how patients must have suffered under the knife when, for example, cutting through the perineum, opening the bladder, extracting a stone and then sewing up the wounds. Meanwhile the patient would have been in unbearable agony, suffering convulsions and muscle spasms, may have gone into deep shock and would have most probably died of the experience.

Joseph Priestly, in 1777, developed one of the most valuable contributions to present-day anaesthesia. Arguably the first anaesthetist, Priestly discovered the value of nitrous oxide for anaesthesia. The work of Humphrey Davy in 1800 described the analgesic action of nitrous oxide, thus confirming its use for anaesthesia. Nitrous oxide is an anaesthetic gas which anaesthetists still use today to aid the delivery of volatile agents and to control the patient's conscious level and pain.

Type
Chapter
Information
Core Topics in Operating Department Practice
Anaesthesia and Critical Care
 , pp. 1 - 7
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

AAGBI. (2005). The Anaesthetic Team. London: The Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland.
AAGBI. (2006). The Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland. Available at: www.aagbi.org/heritage/aagbihistory.htm (Accessed 12 October 2006.)
Al-Shaikh, B. & Stacey, S. (2002). Essentials of Anaesthetic Equipment, 2nd edn. London: Churchill Livingstone.
Department of Health. (2004). A Compendium of Solutions to Implementing the Working Time Directive for Doctors in Training from August 2004. London: HMSO.
Department of Health and Social Security, Welsh Office, Central Health Services Council. (1970). The Organisation and Staffing of Operating Departments. London: HMSO. (The Lewin Report.)
Drummond, J. C. (2000). Monitoring depth of anesthesia: with emphasis on the application of the bispectral index and the middle latency auditory evoked response to the prevention of recall. Anesthesiology, 93(3), 876–82.Google Scholar
English National Board for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting (ENB). (1994). Creating Lifelong Learners: Preregistration Guidelines. London: ENB.
Glass, P. S., Bloom, M., Kearse, L.et al. (1997). Bispectral analysis measures sedation and memory effects of propofol, midazolam, isoflurane, and alfentanil. Anesthesiology, 86, 836–47.Google Scholar
Hind, M. & Wicker, P. (2000). Principles of Perioperative Practice. London: Harcourt.
Ince, C. S. & Davey, A. (2000). Fundamentals of Operating Department Practice. Greenwich: Greenwich Medical Media.
Lipp, A. (2004). New ways of working in anaesthesia. British Journal of Perioperative Nursing, 14(9), 384–90.Google Scholar
Mackenzie, J. (ed.) (1998). Ward Management in Practice. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone.
Moriwaki, G., Bito, H. & Ikeda, K. (1997). Partly exhausted soda lime or soda lime with water added, inhibits the increase in compound A concentration in the circle system during low-flow sevoflurane anaesthesia. British Journal of Anaesthesia, 79(6), 782–6.Google Scholar
National Health Service Modernisation Agency. (2004). Changing Workforce Programme. Role Design: Review of Activities 2004. London: HMSO.
NHS Management Executive. (1989). The Management and Utilisation of Operating Departments. London: VFM Unit. (The Bevan Report.)
Ozkose, Z., Yalcin, , Cok, O.et al. (2002). Comparison of hemodynamics, recovery profile, and early postoperative pain control and costs of remifentanil versus alfentanil-based total intravenous anesthesia (TIVA). Journal of Clinical Anesthesia, 14(3), 161–8.Google Scholar
Pittaway, D. A. (2004). The changing role of the perioperative nurse. In Radford, M., Oakley, M. and County, B., eds., Advancing Perioperative Practice. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes, pp. 1–14.
Puri, G. D. (2001). Paradoxical changes in bispectral index during nitrous oxide administration. British Journal of Anaesthesia, 86(1), 141–2.Google Scholar
Skills for Health. (2005). A Career Framework for Health. Available at: http://www.skillsforhealth.org.uk/careerframework/ (Accessed 8 March 2006).
Tramer, M., Moore, A. & McQuay, H. (1996). Omitting nitrous oxide in general anaesthesia: meta-analysis of intraoperative awareness and postoperative emesis in randomized control trials. British Journal of Anaesthesia, 76, 186–93.Google Scholar
Wicker, P. (1997). Overlapping roles in the operating department. Nursing Standard, 11(20), 44–5.Google Scholar
Wicker, P. & Smith, B. (2003). The changing workforce in the operating department: morphing the professions. Technic. The Journal of Operating Department Practice, 8–11, 242.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×