Shelby Carbary
Anesthesia

Introduction:
Its hard to think of what it would be like to not have anesthesia. For what today is considered minor surgery with anesthesia, would have been very major and extremely painful without the use of anesthesia. Humphry Davy was an English chemist who first discovered that nitrous oxide relieved headache and dental pain, but his report when unnoticed, but did however lead to the invention of laughing gas. This was the first step in discovering anesthesia that would allow us to perform a surgery completely pain free.

Discovery:
Like stated above laughing gas to clear headaches and block dental pain was discover by Humphry Davy by self experimentations. The first demonstration of surgical anesthesia was by Horace Wells. Wells was an American dentist who first observed the effects of nitrous oxide at a traveling medicine show. Wells attempted to perform his own dental procedure but was judged a failure because the patient struggled and screamed through the whole thing. Wells failure was observed by another dentist, William Morton, who began to experiment with ether( used as an inhalant anesthetic). In 1846, Morton demonstrated the surgical removal of a tumor in a patient who expressed nor documented any signs of pain. Later it was discovered the morphine lessened the amount of chloroform needed to produce complete anesthesia. Although people new the effects of the treatment they did not fully understand how the substance worked. For this reason anesthesia was initially ignored by well known and well established medical practitioners because they did not trust any treatment that they did not understand. Although anesthesia is not completely understood, there is one common theory. The most commonly identified theory is that general anesthetics operate directly on the central nervous system to temporarily inhibit synaptic transmission.

Types of Anesthetics
Local- numbs one small area of the body. You stay awake and alert.
Conscious or intravenous (IV) sedation- uses mild sedative to relax you and pain medicine to relieve pain. You stay awake but may not remember procedure after.
Regional anesthesia- blocks pain in an area of the body. Ex. Epidural.
General Anesthesia- affects whole body. You go to sleep and feel nothing and no memory of the procedure after.

Bibliography of Discoverer:
William Morton was born in 1819. Before going in to the study of dentistry he tried his hand as a clerk, printer, and a salesmen but found neither one satisfying. In 1840, Morton enrolled at the worlds first dental school, Baltimore College of Dental Surgery. He left without graduating but instead in 1842-43 became partners with Horace wells but ended soon there after. He then entered Harvard Medical School in 1844. He signed up, one to increase his medical knowledge but also to impress the women he loved and later married. There he attended lectures of Professor Charles Jackson from whom he first learned the properties of ether. During the presentation of former business partner Horace Wells, Morton thought of the possibility of using a stronger agent than that of Horace Wells. He talked to Professor Jackson whom scholars believe advised him to use ether. After many experiments on himself and various animals, Morton successfully performed a dental extraction in his office on Boston merchant Eben Frost. On the account of the procedure Henry Bigelow arranged MGH head surgeon John Collins Warren to stage a public performance of the revolutionary experiment.

Impact on Humanity:
Before the use of anesthesia, people were expected to suffer through the surgeries with nothing but alcohol and opiates to numb the pain. Today we are now able to perform much larger procedures pain free. Anesthesia has been able to save many peoples lives because doctors are able to go into a body and get rid of cancer causing tumors or other life threatening issues.
This also gives people the ability to have surgery without as much fear. The surgery room used to be a loud place because of the screams and moans of pain but now surgery can be performed much quicker and much more calm.

Journal Article:
Although uncommon, some people experience inadequate anesthesia. In this instance the patient may be aware of the surgery as it goes on. Preoperative sedation may reduce anxiety, and the analgesic may reduce worry, but the muscle relaxant prevents the patient from communicating that he or she is awake until after the procedure is over. Fortunately the incidence of surgical awareness is extremely low ( well under 1%). It is most common in surgeries where the standard care permits only light amounts of anesthesia to begin with.




Resources:
Anesthesia and Surgery, http://www.instituteshot.com/anesthesia_and_surgery.htm
Anesthesia,(2010) http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/anesthesia.html
William Morton, http://www.general-anesthesia.com/images/william-morton.html