Timeline of important dates and events in the development of anaesthesia
This section chronologically presents some of the important dates and events in the development of anaesthesia. It is by no means exhaustive.
24th December 1298
Theodoric of Lucca
Theodoric of Lucca, Italian physician and bishop, dies. He had used sponges soaked with opium and mandragora for surgical pain relief.
1525
Ether is first used on animals by Paracelsus.
1540
Valerius Cordus first synthesizes diethyl ether by distilling ethanol and sulphuric acid.
1628
William Harvey publishes the first description of systemic circulation in Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus.
1733
Invasive arterial blood pressure measurement is described by Reverend Stephen Hales who inserted specially designed glass pipes into the femoral arteries of horses. The non-invasive blood pressure cuff would be introduced by Scipione Riva-Rocci in 1896.
13th March 1733
Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley is born near Leeds. Among many other achievements, this Unitarian minister and scientist isolated nitrous oxide. In 1774 Priestley wrote about his research on gases, "I cannot help flattering myself that, in time, very great medicinal use will be made of the application of these different kinds of airs..."
23rd May 1734
Franz Anton Mesmer
Franz Anton Mesmer is born. He later received a grant from Louis XVI to study the magnetic influence of the stars on human beings. In his Memoire sur la decouverte du magnetisme animal (published 1779) he described using magnets and hypnosis to cure various ailments. 'Mesmerism' was widely used for surgical pain relief prior to the introduction of anaesthesia.
19th January 1736
James Watt
James Watt is born in Greenock, Scotland. Watt, of workable steam engine fame, developed a partnership in the mid-1780s with Thomas Beddoes as Beddoes attempted to market his therapeutic applications of Priestley's "factitious airs" or gases. Watt developed equipment for Beddoes' use; some of this equipment was later used in Bristol during the nitrous oxide experiments of 1799 and 1800.
1743
Charles-Marie de La Condamine publishes the first written account of curare in which it was described as 'flying death' that would 'kill in less than a minute'.
20th March 1750
Dutch chemist Martinus van Marum is born. From about 1790 to 1808 Van Marum was an active member of the Society of Dutch Chemists which studied gases- including nitrous oxide- and published some 35 papers based on that research.
13th April 1760
Thomas Beddoes
Thomas Beddoes is born in Shropshire.
Beddoes began to explore the potential medical uses of gases in the late 1780s. He was assisted by none other than James Watt, who developed some equipment for Beddoes' use. In 1798 Beddoes founded the Pneumatic Institute in Bristol, England, where Humphry Davy did his nitrous oxide research. He died on 24th December 1808.
Beddoes began to explore the potential medical uses of gases in the late 1780s. He was assisted by none other than James Watt, who developed some equipment for Beddoes' use. In 1798 Beddoes founded the Pneumatic Institute in Bristol, England, where Humphry Davy did his nitrous oxide research. He died on 24th December 1808.
17th December 1778
Humphry Davy
Humphry Davy is born in Penzance, Cornwall.
18th January 1779
Peter Mark Roget
Peter Mark Roget is born in London. After graduating from medical school in Edinburgh he worked with Thomas Beddoes and Humphry Davy on their famous nitrous oxide research.
Roget wrote the Encylopaedia Brittanica entry on Beddoes and near the end of his life created his eponymous thesaurus.
Roget wrote the Encylopaedia Brittanica entry on Beddoes and near the end of his life created his eponymous thesaurus.
26th December 1780
John Fothergill
Physician John Fothergill dies. In 1744 he published an account of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to revive the apparently dead.
8th May 1794
Antoine Laurent Lavoisier
Antoine Laurent Lavoisier is beheaded in the early days of the French Revolution. It was Lavoisier who had discovered oxygen. It is said that he had told his friends that he would start blinking as the guillotine blade fell and they were to to see how long his eyes carried on blinked after his head was severed. The result was some 15 seconds!
17th April 1799
In a letter published in Nicholson's Journal, Humphry Davy announces to the world that nitrous oxide can be inhaled by humans. "I have this day made a discovery," he wrote, "which, if you please, you may announce in your Physical Journal, namely that the nitrous phosoxyd or gaseous oxyd of azote, is respirable when perfectly freed from nitric phosoxyd (nitrous gas)."
25th June 1800
Humphry Davy completes the introduction to his classic work, Researches, Chemical and Philosophical: Chiefly Concerning Nitrous Oxide, or Dephlogisticated Nitrous Air, and its Respiration.
1805
Friedrich Serturner
Friedrich Wilhelm Adam Ferdinand Serturner, an assistant apothecary, discovers morphine, the active ingredient in laudanum and names it after Morpheus - the Greek god of dreams.
7th June 1811
James Young Simpson
James Young Simpson is born in Bathgate, near Edinburgh, Scotland
30th September 1811
Fanny Burney
English novelist and diarist Fanny Burney undergoes a mastectomy for suspected breast cancer; she refused any drugs or alcohol. Between March and May 1812, Burney wrote a detailed letter describing her experience of surgery without anesthesia.
15th March 1813
John Snow
Birth of John Snow in York, as recorded on his baptism certificate.
19th July 1814
Samuel Colt
Samuel Colt is born in Hartford, Connecticut. In the 1830s Colt, calling himself "Professor Coult" or "Doctor Coult" of " Calcutta , London and New York ", toured the eastern United States giving demonstrations of nitrous oxide inhalation to raise money to put his revolver prototype into production. In 1835 he patented a revolving-breech pistol and founded the Patent Arms Company in Paterson , New Jersey . The company failed in 1842, but an order for 1,000 revolvers by the U.S. government five years later during the Mexican War allowed Colt to restart his business.
21st January 1815
Horace wells
Horace Wells is born in Hartford, Connecticut.
1st November 1815
Crawford W. Long
Crawford W. Long is born in Danielsville, Georgia
4th July 1819
Dr. Edward R. Squibb is born in Wilmington, Delaware. In 1858 he founded the Squibb Pharmaceutical Co. in a few rented rooms at 149 Furman Street in Brooklyn Heights . His company manufactured medicinal products that were safer, cleaner and more standardized than most of the medications then available. The company’s first order was for 18 pounds of chloroform. The firm’s specialty was anesthetics, including ether, chloroform, and cocaine. By 1868 the company had outgrown its Furman Street quarters and eventually had more than 17,000 employees and marketed pharmaceutical products in 136 countries.
9th August 1819
William Morton
William Thomas Green Morton is born, Charlton City, Massachussetts
21st February 1824
Henry Hill Hickman
Henry Hill Hickman writes a letter to T. A. Knight describing his experiments with painless surgery on animals using carbon dioxide as an anaesthetic.
12th April 1829
Jules Cloquet
Dr Jules Cloquet amputates a breast from a woman asleep under hypnosis.
1831
Chloroform is first prepared.
1st September 1832
Ephraim Cutter, American physician and inventor of the laryngoscope, is born.
17th July 1841
The first issue of the weekly British humor magazine Punch is published. In 1847 and 1848 the magazine, edited by Mark Lemon, published several items related to the newly-discovered anesthetics ether and chloroform. These items, which usually suggested unorthodox uses for the gases, included cartoons and such gems as Percival Leigh's song, "The Blessings of Chloroform."
January 1842
Rochester, New York. Physician William E. Clarke administers ether from a towel to a Miss Hobbie prior to the removal of a tooth by dentist Elijah Pope.
30th March 1842
Crawford Long administers ether for the removal of a tumour from the neck of a Mr James M. Venable, in what is the first known administration of a gas for surgical pain relief. However, Long did not publish an account of this until December 1849, when it appeared in the Southern Medical and Surgical Journal.
26th August 1842
Heinrich Irenaeus Quincke
German physician Heinrich Irenaeus Quincke is born. He was the first to discover the technique of lumbar puncture.
July 1844
William T. G. Morton begins using sulphuric ether as a local anaesthetic agent in his Boston Dental practice. This had been suggested to him by Dr Charles A. Jackson.
10th December 1844
Horace Wells
Dentist Horace Wells attends a demonstration of nitrous oxide inhalation at Union Hall in Hartford, Conneticut. At this exhibition by Gardner Quincy Colton, Wells conceived the notion of pain relief by gas inhalation, and thus rediscovered an idea by Humphry Davy expressed 4 decades earlier. However, Wells quickly put the idea into practice. Later in the century Colton single-handedly revived interest in nitrous oxide for dentistry.
11th December 1844
Gardner Quincy Colton
Colton administers nitrous oxide to Wells while another dentist, Dr. John M. Riggs, extracted one of Well's teeth.
January 1845
Horace Wells attempts to demonstrate anaesthetic properties of nitrous oxide at Massachussetts General Hospital. The anaesthetic was incomplete and judged a failure.
12th March 1845
First subcutaneous injection using a hypodermic syringe is given by Francis Rynd.
30th September 1846
Boston dentist William Thomas Green Morton anaesthetises Eben H. Frost and successfully removes an ulcerated tooth. Frost had requested that Morton mesmerize (hypnotize) him, but the dentist, who had been searching for a pain relieving agent, tried sulfuric ether instead.
16th October 1846
On this Friday morning, William Morton appears in the operating theatre of the Massachussetts General Hospital. Morton was running late, but surgeon John Collins Warren had not yet started the removal of a tumour from Gilbert Abbot's jaw. For about 3 minutes Abbot breathed ether vapour from Morton's simple apparatus - which had been the source of his delay. As Warren noted later, Abbott 'sank into a state of insensibility' . The first successful public demonstration of ether anaesthesia had begun. Abbot "did not experience any pain at the time, although aware that the operation was proceeding" Warren wrote in 1848. The great surgeon is supposed to have declared "Gentlemen, this is no humbug."
17th October 1846
George Hayward
At the MGH surgeon George Hayward removes a large tumour from a woman's arm in the second successful demonstration of Morton's 'Letheon'.
7th November 1846
Surgeon General George Hayward performes a leg amputation and a lower jaw removal under ether anaesthesia at the Massachussetts General Hospital. These surgeries were the 3rd and 4th at which the Boston dentist William Thomas Green Morton served as anaesthetist.
9th November 1846
Henry J. Bigelow
Henry J. Bigelow, junior surgeon at the Massachussetts General Hospital reports Morton's 4 successful ether anaesthetics to a meeting of the Boston Society for Medical Improvements.
12th November 1846
Letter patent No. 4848 is issued to Charles T. Jackson and William T. G. Morton for 10% of all profits on the use of ether in surgical operations. There was vociferous opposition from the medical and dental communities to such a patent so that Jackson and Morton quickly made their discovery known and freely available.
18th November 1846
Bigelow's account is published in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, launching the spread of ether anaesthesia around the world.
21st November 1846
Oliver Wendell Holmes
In a letter to William T. G. Morton, Oliver Wendell Holmes suggests the word 'anaesthesia' to describe the mental state produced by the inhalation of the ether vapour. The word had first appeared in Bailey's English Dictionary in 1751.
15th December 1846
Ether anaesthesia is first administered in Paris, France. The anaesthetic was administered by Francis Willis Fisher, a physician from Boston, Massachusetts for the excision of a large cancer on the lower lip of a 59 year-old man.
19th December 1846
English dentist James Robinson administers ether for removal of a disease molar tooth from a young female patient in London. John Snow visited Robinson within a few days to see the process at first hand. Also ether is used for anaesthesia during the amputation of a leg in Dumfries, Scotland.
21st December 1846
Robert Liston
The first surgical anaesthetic with ether is administered in England by William Squire during surgery by Robert Liston.
19th January 1847
James Young Simpson first uses ether for relief of pain in labour.
25th January 1847
The first Caesarean section under general anesthesia is performed at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London. The surgeon is Mr. Skey and the anaesthetist Mr. Tracy. The child survived but the mother, who was only four feet tall and had a grossly deformed pelvis, died two days after the operation.
28th January 1847
St. George's Hospital
John Snow begins to administer ether for major surgeries at St. George's Hospital, London.
March 1847
French physiologist Marie Jean Pierre Flourens determines that inhalation of chloroform caused the same temporary state in animals as did ether. Flourens is best known for proving that the respiratory center is in the medulla and the function of the cerebellum in muscular coordination; he also studied bone formation. He was a professor at the Collège de France for many years. In November 1847 Scottish physician James Young Simpson demonstrated the anesthetic properties of chloroform in humans.
7th April 1847
Nathan Cooley Keep administers the first obstetric anesthetic in the United States in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Dr. Keep was a prominent physician of the Boston area and the first Dean of Dentistry at Harvard. The patient was Frances Appleton Longfellow, second wife of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. She later wrote about her experience, "I am very sorry you all thought me so rash and naughty in trying the ether. Henry's faith gave me courage...I feel proud to be the pioneer to less suffering for poor, weak womankind. This is certainly the greatest blessing of this age and I am glad to have lived at the time of its coming and in the country which gives it to the world..."
8th November 1847
Wilhelmina Carstairs
In Edinburgh, Scotland, James Young Simpson introduces chloroform into clinical practice. The patient was Wilhelmina Carstairs, daughter of a physician.
28th January 1848
Hannah Greener from Newcastle, England becomes the first fatality from chloroform anaesthesia to be widely reported in the literature.
1850
First fire under ether anaesthesia is recorded.
Dr Carl von Scherzer brings first coca leaves to Europe - permitting isolation of cocaine.
Dr Carl von Scherzer brings first coca leaves to Europe - permitting isolation of cocaine.
7th April 1853
Queen Victoria
John Snow administers chloroform to Queen Victoria for the birth of her eighth child - Prince Leopold. She later wrote in her journal "Dr Snow gave that blessed chloroform and the effect was soothing, uieting and delightful beyond measure". This event removed much of the stigma then associated with pain relief in childbirth in Great Britain.
1854
Manuel Patricio Rodriguez Garcia describes the use of mirrors to view the larynx in a paper to the Royal Society of London.
12th April 1856
Dr. Marshall Hall describes artificial respiration in The Lancet.
10th November 1856
John Snow makes the first clinical administration of amylene, a gas he had extensively investigated in animals. By July, 1857, Snow abandons use of the gas after two of his patients die. In the summer of 1857 a New York physician, John G. Orton, published two accounts in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal of his use of amylene in a toenail extraction and an obstetric case. Dr. Orton noted that he had obtained the amylene from Snow.
1860
Working at the University of Göttingen in Germany, Albert Niemann purifies cocaine.
1862
Thomas Skinner, a general practitioner and obstetrician from Liverpool designs the first wire frame for administration of open drop chloroform. In 1890 Curt Schimmelbusch of Berlin introduced his more familiar wire-framed mask.
August 1868
Joseph Thomas Clover
Joseph Thomas Clover presents his paper "On the Administration of Nitrous Oxide" at the British Medical Association meeting at Oxford. Soon after Coxeter and Son in begin marketing an apparatus employing a cylinder of gas, a reservoir bag and a Clover face mask.
November 1868
Edmund Andrews
Dr Edmund Andrews publishes in the Chicago Medical Examiner a paper proposing administration of nitrous oxide with oxygen in a premixed combination of 20 - 80%.
December 1868
A committee formed in April by the Odontological Society of Great Britain and the Committee of Management of the Dental Hospital of London to investigate nitrous oxide makes its first report. The report recommended the elimination of air inhalation during nitrous oxide administration but also emphasizes the potential dangers of this method.
8th April 1869
Harvey Williams Cushing
Harvey Williams Cushing is born in Cleveland , Ohio. In 1894 Cushing and his fellow "house pup" at the Massachusetts General Hospital , E.A. Codman, developed the first anesthesia record.
1st February 1873
The Lancet reports the first documented death from nitrous oxide inhalation.
9th February 1874
Ore administers the first intravenous general anaesthetic in humans in modern times. In 1875 he published the first monograph on the technique, Etudes Cliniques sur L’Anesthesie Chirurgicale par La Methode des Injections de Chloral dans Les Veines. Acceptance of the method was delayed by slow recovery and high mortality.
1877
Acetaminophen is first synthesised by Harmon Northrop Morse during a search for low-toxicity compounds of aniline. The drug was abandoned in 1887 following clinical trials by Joseph von Mering who mistakenly claimed it produced methaemoglobinaemia. The drug was first marketed as paracetamol in 1953.
1881
August Freund discovers cyclopropane.
Professor Sydney Ringer develops his solution for IV infusion. In 1932 Professor Alexis Frank Hartmann added lactate to Ringer's solution to combat the possibility of acidosis in young patients - Hartmann’s solution (Lactated Ringer's Solution).
Professor Sydney Ringer develops his solution for IV infusion. In 1932 Professor Alexis Frank Hartmann added lactate to Ringer's solution to combat the possibility of acidosis in young patients - Hartmann’s solution (Lactated Ringer's Solution).
15th September 1884
Carl Koller
A colleague of Dr. Carl Koller's reports to the Heidelberg Congress of Ophthalmology Koller's first use of cocaine as a local anaesthetic.
15th November 1884
Vassily von Anrep
Vassily von Anrep publishes first extensive account of the clinical use of cocaine in a Russian journal.
1st January 1886
Adelaide Bartlett
Wealthy grocer Thomas Edwin Bartlett dies in the Pimlico district of London from chloroform poisoning. In the spring his wife Adelaide and their spiritual advisor, friend and her lover, Wesleyan minister Reverend George Dyson, are tried and found innocent of the crime.
27th April 1887
George Thomas Morton, son of William T. G. Morton, performs the first appendicectomy.
1893
The London Society of Anaesthetists is founded. In 1908 the Society formed the Anaesthetic Section of the Royal Society of Medicine to advance the science and art of anaesthesia.
16th August 1897
August Bier
German surgeon Dr August Bier administers the first spinal anaesthetic. He also invented the spiked German army helmet used during the first world war.
1898
Bayer Company introduces heroin, first synthesized from morphine in 1874, for use as a non-addictive painkiller. It was later found to be more addictive than morphine and the company removed it from the market.
March 1898
At a meeting of the Society of Anaesthetists in England Alfred Coleman describes his technique for nasal administration of nitrous oxide and Stephen A. Coxon advocates continuous insufflation of pure nitrous oxide into the pharynx.
April 1898
Henry Hillard describes induction of nitrous oxide anesthesia with face mask and maintenance of anesthesia with nasopharyngeal insufflation.
July 1900
Oskar Kreis publishes the first account of spinal analgesia for vaginal delivery.
1901
Cathelin and Sicard independently describe caudal analgesia.
2nd June 1902
King Edward VII
Frederick (later Sir Frederick) Hewitt anaesthetises Edward VII for drainage of an appendix abscess.
1903
Working at the Pasteur Institute, Ernest Fourneau develops the first synthetic local anaesthetic - Amylocaine (Stovaine).
Ethyl Chloride is popularised as a general anaesthetic.
The Electrocardiogram (ECG) is developed by Professor Willem Einthoven at the University of Leiden, Netherlands.
Ethyl Chloride is popularised as a general anaesthetic.
The Electrocardiogram (ECG) is developed by Professor Willem Einthoven at the University of Leiden, Netherlands.
1905
Alfred Einhor develops Procaine (Novocaine).
1907
The first Intermittent Positive Pressure Ventilation (IPPV) device – the Draegr "Pulmotor" is introduced in Germany.
22nd February 1908
Waller describes his chloroform balance at a meeting of the Physiological Society in London. This apparatus was the first to give a continuous and almost instantaneous reading of the concentration of vapor received by the patient.
7th June 1909
Virginia Apgar is born in Westfield , New Jersey . In the late 1940s Apgar began developing the scoring system for newborn evaluation that bears her name; she presented the system at a meeting on September 21, 1952, and published it the following year.
22nd February 1910
Medical historian Barbara Duncum is born. In 1947 Dr. Duncum published The Development of Inhalation Anaesthesia, which along with Thomas Keys' The History of Surgical Anesthesia is one of the major histories of the specialty.
1917
Henry 'Cocky' Boyle designs his first anaesthetic machine. Boyle's left-handedness lead to the arrangement of flow meters and vaporisers that is still used today. This original Boyle machine was improved in a stepwise fashion between 1920 and 1965.
27th March 1917
Dr. Leslie Rendell-Baker is born in St. Helens, Lancashire. He graduated from Guy's Hospital Medical School in 1941 and entered the Royal Army Medical Corps the following year. After training in Scotland, Dr. Rendell-Baker and his medical team landed at Queen Red Beach on D-Day; he continued to serve in Europe until Christmas, 1946. After the war he trained in anesthesia at Guy's Hospital and then settled permanently in the U.S. in 1957. Rendell-Baker co-authored three anesthesia textbooks, 11 book chapters and numerous journal articles. In the 1960s he and dental surgeon Dr. Donald Soucek developed a face mask for use in children that became a world-wide standard.
1919
Working at the Queen's Hospital for Facial and Jaw Injuries, Sidcup, Ivan Whiteside Magill develops red rubber endotracheal tubes. The following year he developed the forceps that became known throughout the world as Magill forceps.
May 1920
Arthur Guedel
Arthur Guedel published his first paper “on the importance of the physiologic factors in inhalation anaesthesia”.
1922
The first edition of Anesthesia and Analgesia is published under the auspices of the International Anesthesia Research Society. Edited by Francis McMechan, this is became the first dedicated journal of anaesthesia.
7th September 1922
William Stewart Halstead
American surgeon William Stewart Halstead dies. He was one of the founders of Johns Hopkins Medical School. Under his direction the first pair of rubber surgical gloves were made. He was also one of the first American surgeons to research the use of cocaine as a local anaesthetic. Unfortunately his self-experimentation resulted in addiction to the drug.
1923
The British Journal of Anaesthesia is founded. The BJA is the second oldest journal of anaesthesia and was the first to be published monthly (in 1955). It became the journal of the College of Anaesthetists in 1990.
21st January 1923
Arno B. Luckhardt
Arno B. Luckhardt administers the first ethylene-oxygen anaesthetic to J.B. Carter, a medical student. The experiment was repeated later the same day with Dr. Luckhardt and Mr. Carter exchanging roles. Since 1918 Luckhardt and R.C. Thompson had extensively studied the anesthetic and analgesic properties of an 80/20 mixture of ethylene and oxygen in animals. Ethylene had been known for more than a century; in the late 1700s Joseph Priestley attributed its first preparation to Jan Ingenhousz, a Dutch botanist and physiologist. In 1849 British surgeon Thomas Nunneley investigated the gas, but did not recommend it as an anesthetic. In May 1923 Luckhardt and Carter reported on 106 cases of ethylene as a general anesthetic. Ethylene continued in use clinically for some three decades, despite several explosions associated with its administration. In recent years ethylene has been suggested as the agent responsible for the exalted states associated with the ancient Oracle of Delphi.
7th April 1923
First brain tumor operation under local anaesthesia is performed by Dr. K. Winfield Ney at Beth Israel Hospital in New York City .
1931
Cuffed endotracheal tubes are introduced into clinical practice.
1932
The Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland is founded by Dr Henry Featherstone. The Association adopted the motto 'in somno securitas' (safe in sleep) when it was granted the right to bear arms by king george VI in 1945.
Suxamethonium is first used by Dr Ranyard West to treat tetanus and patients with muscle spasticity. Pethidine is introduced.
Suxamethonium is first used by Dr Ranyard West to treat tetanus and patients with muscle spasticity. Pethidine is introduced.
1933
Arthur Guedel designs a new 'non-traumatic pharyngeal airway'. The Guedel airway remains in use worldwide today.
8th March 1934
Ralph M. Waters
First use of thiopental in man - administered by Ralph M. Waters in Wisconsin.
1935
Diploma in Anaesthetics (DA) examinations are introduced in Great Britain.
13th February 1936
American Society of Anesthesiologists is founded.
1937
Thomas Philip Ayre invents a simple metal T-piece to which he attached 6-10 inches of open-ended red rubber tubing to the distal end as a reservoir for fresh gas flow. Since there were no valves or reservoir bag, dead space and resistance to breathing were minimised.
In 1950 Jackson Rees added an open-ended bag to the expiratory limb that facilitated manual controlled ventilation.
In 1950 Jackson Rees added an open-ended bag to the expiratory limb that facilitated manual controlled ventilation.
23rd January 1942
curare
Curare is introduced into anaesthetic practice by Canadian anaesthetist Harold Griffiths.
13th February 1943
Sir Robert Macintosh
Sir Robert Macintosh publishes as article in Lancet about the laryngoscope blade that now bears his name.
1945
The Tuohy epidural needle is introduced into clinical practice.
1946
Anaesthesia, the journal of the AAGBI is first published.
1947
Faculty of Anaesthetists of the Royal College of Surgeons of England is founded.
October 1947
Two patients, Albert Woolley and Cecil Roe, receive spinal anesthesia from the same anaesthetist, Dr. James M. Graham, for relatively minor surgical procedures, and both developed permanent, painful, spastic paraparesis. The men sued Dr. Graham and the Ministry of Health; the case finally went to trial in October, 1953, and lasted eleven days. The plaintiffs lost primarily due to testimony of Sir Robert Macintosh. Despite the outcome, the use of spinal anesthesia in the United Kingdom was retarded for the next 25 years.
1948
National Health Service is established in Great Britain. Negotiation by the AAGBI ensured that anaesthetists received consultant status.
Torsten Gordh introduces lignocaine into clinical practice.
Torsten Gordh introduces lignocaine into clinical practice.
1951
Halothane first synthesised.
1952
Intermittent Positive Pressure Ventilation (IPPV) is proposed by Dr Bjorn Ibsen – an anaesthetist working in Denmark during the polio epidemic. Ibsen organising the continuous manual ventilation of patients by students and junior doctors.
1953
Fellowship of the Faculty of Anaesthetists of the Royal College of Surgeons (FFARCS) examinations are introduced. These became the Fellow of the College of Anaesthetists (FCAnaes) examinations in 1989 and Fellow of the Royal College of Anaesthetists (FRCA) examinations in 1992.
1954
William Wellesley Mapleson
William Wellesley Mapleson, a physicist working in the Department of Anaesthetics at the Welsh National School of Medicine publishes his theoretical analysis of five semi-closed breathing systems. Since he knew nothing of the origins of the systems, Mapleson simply applied the labels A, B, C, D and E.
Dr Henning Ruben designs the first prototype Ambu Bag using sprung bicycle spokes to aid automatic re-expansion.
Dr Henning Ruben designs the first prototype Ambu Bag using sprung bicycle spokes to aid automatic re-expansion.
1955
World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists is founded.
1956
Halothane is first used clinically by Dr M Johnstone in Manchester.
1957
First Report on Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths in England and Wales published. It covered the years 1952-1954.
1959
Faculty (now College) of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland is founded.
1961
Brian Arthur Sellick publishes his seminal paper describing 'cricoid pressure to control regurgitation of stomach contents during induction of anaesthesia' in the Lancet.
1963
Edmund I Eger II
Edmond I Eger II and Giles Merkel publish a study using the concept of Minimum Alveolar Concentration (MAC) to compare the effects of halothane and halopropane on physiological parameters in dogs.
1965
Philip Raikes Bromage publishes his scoring system to assess the intensity of lower limb motor blockade after extradural analgesia/anaesthesia.
Melzack and Wall propose the gate control theory of pain.
Bupivacaine is first marketed by AstraZeneca.
Melzack and Wall propose the gate control theory of pain.
Bupivacaine is first marketed by AstraZeneca.
1970
Intensive Care Society is founded in the UK.
August 1970
Drs. H.J.C. Swan and William Ganz of Los Angeles introduce the pulmonary artery catheter into clinical practice.
1972
James Bain and Wolfgang Spoerel publish the first description of a coaxial 'streamlined anaesthetic circuit'
1975
Etomidate is first used clinically.
Drs Wallace Ring, John Adair and Richard Elwyn of the University of Utah Primary Paediatric Hospital, Salt Lake City develop the RAE endotracheal tube.
Drs Wallace Ring, John Adair and Richard Elwyn of the University of Utah Primary Paediatric Hospital, Salt Lake City develop the RAE endotracheal tube.
1977
Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) formulate Propofol with Cremophor EL .
1978
Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) - a trauma management system based on the concept of reducing morbidity and mortality in the 'Golden hour' following trauma first devised by physicians in Nebraska.
1980
Isoflurane is introduced into clinical use.
Archie Brain first develops the concept of the laryngeal mask airway having become disillusioned with endotracheal intubation.
In the USA, Biox Technology commercialise the first clinically useful pulse oximeter.
Archie Brain first develops the concept of the laryngeal mask airway having become disillusioned with endotracheal intubation.
In the USA, Biox Technology commercialise the first clinically useful pulse oximeter.
1981
In Sydney, Australia, Colin Sullivan and colleagues develop Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) for the treatment of obstructive sleep apnoea.
1982
United Kingdom Resuscitation Council formed.
1983
First clinical use of atracurium.
1984
Propofol in soya oil emulsion is introduced into clinical practice.
Ronald Sidney Cormack and John Robert Lehane publish their landmark paper describing typical views during direct laryngoscopy.
Ondansetron is first developed.
Vecuronium is approved by the FDA.
Ronald Sidney Cormack and John Robert Lehane publish their landmark paper describing typical views during direct laryngoscopy.
Ondansetron is first developed.
Vecuronium is approved by the FDA.
1985
Seshagiri Rao Mallampati and colleagues in Boston, Massachusetts publish their airway classification - dividing patients into three groups according to which pharyngeal structures were visible. In 1987 Samsoon and Young in Portsmouth, UK, added a fourth class.
1987
First clinical use of Desflurane.
First Confidential Enquiry into Perioperative Deaths (CEPOD) Report is published. Commissioned jointly by the AAGBI and the Association of surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland, it analysed 4000 deaths occurring within 30 days of surgery during 1986. The first National Report (NCEPOD) was published in 1989 and focused on deaths in children under 10 years of age.
Dr Jurgen Sprotte introduces the spinal needle that now bears his name.
The benzodiazepine antagonist Flumazenil is first marketed by Hoffmann-LaRoche.
First Confidential Enquiry into Perioperative Deaths (CEPOD) Report is published. Commissioned jointly by the AAGBI and the Association of surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland, it analysed 4000 deaths occurring within 30 days of surgery during 1986. The first National Report (NCEPOD) was published in 1989 and focused on deaths in children under 10 years of age.
Dr Jurgen Sprotte introduces the spinal needle that now bears his name.
The benzodiazepine antagonist Flumazenil is first marketed by Hoffmann-LaRoche.
1988
Coat of arms of the RCoA
College of Anaesthetists is founded replacing the Faculty of Anaesthetists of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. A Royal charter was granted in 1992. The coat of arms of the Royal college features morphia poppy heads to symbolise general anaesthesia and analgesia and cocaine leaves to represent local anaesthesia. The supporters on either side of the shield are John Snow and Joseph Thomas Cover. Snow is depicted as a Doctor of Medicine of the University of London and has his early treatise On the inhalation of ether in surgical operations in his hand, whilst Clover holds his portable ether inhaler and is dressed in the robes of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. The motto 'divinum sedare dolorem' means 'it is divine (or praiseworthy) to alleviate pain.
In Canada, David Gambling and colleagues introduce Patient Controlled Epidural Anaesthesia (PCEA).
In Canada, David Gambling and colleagues introduce Patient Controlled Epidural Anaesthesia (PCEA).
1990
Sevoflurane is introduced into clinical practice.
1992
Royal Colleges form the Joint Advisory Committee for Intensive Therapy (JACIT) to oversee training in intensive care medicine.
1993
Drs EP McCoy and RK Mirakhur introduce the McCoy laryngoscope blade.
1994
Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre is established with funding from the Department of Health to undertake comparative audit and evaluative research in intensive care.
In the USA, Aspect Medical Industries develop Bispectral Index (BIS) Monitoring as a guide to depth of anaesthesia.
In the USA, Aspect Medical Industries develop Bispectral Index (BIS) Monitoring as a guide to depth of anaesthesia.
1996
Intercollegiate Board for Training in Intensive Care Medicine is formed (superseding the JACIT). The Royal College of Anaesthetists is lead institution.
Remifentanil is approved by the FDA.
Ropivocaine is first marketed.
Remifentanil is approved by the FDA.
Ropivocaine is first marketed.
1999
First reviews are published recommending the routine use of ultrasound for regional nerve blocks and placement of central venous lines.
25th May 2000
The first National Anaesthesia Day is held in Great Britain under the auspices of the Royal College of Anaesthetists.
2001
The Glidescope becomes the first commercially available video-laryngoscope.
2003
Datex-Ohmeda develop Spectral Entropy Monitoring as a guide to depth of anaesthesia.
2nd April 2007
Faculty of Pain Medicine of the Royal college of Anaesthetists is founded. The Faculty oversees the Fellowship of the Faculty of Pain Medicine of the Royal College of Anaesthetists (FFPMRCA) examinations.
29th July 2008
The first selective relaxant binding agent, Sugammadex is approved for use in the European Union.
June 2010
Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine is founded by seven parent colleges - Royal College of Anaesthetists, College of Emergency Medicine, Royal College of Physicians of London, Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, Royal College of Surgeons of England and Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. The Faculty oversees the Fellowship of the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine (FFICM) examinations.
