Medicine Atlas

How Healing Is Practiced
Medical Specialties

Anesthesiology

an-ess-thee-zee-OL-o-jee

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Origin Began developing as a distinct medical practice after the first successful public demonstration of surgical anesthesia in 1846, but did not professionalize as its own physician specialty with formal board certification until well into the twentieth century, later than most of the surgical specialties it supports.

Anesthesiology is the medical specialty concerned with perioperative care: administering anesthesia and managing pain and vital functions before, during and after surgical and other invasive procedures. It emerged as a distinct clinical practice following the first public demonstrations of surgical anesthesia in the 1840s, maturing over the following century into a physician specialty focused specifically on patient safety under sedation.

Facts
Origin Period
Began developing as a distinct medical practice after the first successful public demonstration of surgical anesthesia in 1846, but did not professionalize as its own physician specialty with formal board certification until well into the twentieth century, later than most of the surgical specialties it supports. 1
Sources
1. The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity
Roy Porter, W. W. Norton and Company, 1997
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
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