TY - CHAP M1 - Book, Section TI - The History of Local Anesthesia A1 - Chuan, Alwin A1 - Harrop-Griffiths, William A2 - Hadzic, Admir PY - 2017 T2 - Hadzic's Textbook of Regional Anesthesia and Acute Pain Management, 2e AB - The history of local anesthesia lacks a distinct Eureka moment. It can be argued that regional anesthesia does not have in its history a pivotal day that signified the wholesale change from an era before local anesthesia to the dawn of a new and wonderful age that included parts of the body being rendered insensate for therapeutic reasons. We do not have the equivalent of October 16, 1846, and the trembling hands of William Thomas Green Morton. What we have is a remarkably slow concatenation of the three elements necessary for the administration of the vast majority of local anesthetics: a syringe, a needle, and a local anesthetic drug. Many, however, would argue that to these three need be added several other factors: a detailed knowledge of anatomy and an appreciation of the body’s pain mechanisms and more objective methods to localize peripheral nerves and monitor administration of local anesthetics. We make no excuse for concentrating in this chapter on the early history of local anesthesia to dissect the development of these three vital components. SN - PB - McGraw-Hill Education CY - New York, NY Y2 - 2024/10/04 UR - accessanesthesiology.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1141730430 ER -