Anesthesia Key

INTRODUCTION Print Section Listen Anticoagulants are widely used in the perioperative period. The anesthesia consultant must have an understanding of their pharmacology and the implications of their use in a…

INTRODUCTION Print Section Listen Postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) is the most common complication associated with anesthesia and surgery, occurring in approximately one-third of all patients and up to 70%…

HISTORY OF DEVELOPMENT Print Section Listen Neuromuscular blocking agents (NMBAs) were first “discovered” by the native Indian populations of South America and were used for hunting game. They called their…

INTRODUCTION Print Section Listen In 1516, Peter Martyr D’Anghera (1457–1526) described in his book, De Orbo Novo (The New World) the effects of poisoned arrows (proven later to contain crude…

INTRODUCTION Print Section Listen Perioperative pain control remains one of the primary concerns for surgical patients, surgeons, and anesthesiologists. Traditionally, opiates have been the medications used for the treatment of…

HISTORY OF DEVELOPMENT Print Section Listen The discovery of inhalation anesthetics has a colorful history and began as early as the late 1700s with nitrous oxide. One initial use was…

HISTORY OF DEVELOPMENT Print Section Listen The first reports of opioid use date to more than 6000 years ago, when a gummy substance known as opium was extracted from poppy…

HISTORY Print Section Listen Local anesthetics have been used for centuries and represent some of the oldest drugs in the armamentarium of anesthesiologists. The story of the coca leaf and…

HISTORY OF DEVELOPMENT Print Section Listen Sedative–hypnotics are a relatively new class of anesthetics, beginning with the introduction of sodium thiopental in the early 1930s. Since then, several ­sedative–hypnotics have…