RT Book, Section
A1 Chuan, Alwin
A1 Harrop-Griffiths, William
A2 Hadzic, Admir
SR Print(0)
ID 1141730430
T1 The History of Local Anesthesia
T2 Hadzic's Textbook of Regional Anesthesia and Acute Pain Management, 2e
YR 2017
FD 2017
PB McGraw-Hill Education
PP New York, NY
SN 9780071717595
LK accessanesthesiology.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1141730430
RD 2024/04/19
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.