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Anaesthesia research "has been for a long time a science of untestable hypotheses," notes Neil L. Harrison of Cornell University. [13] "Most of the injectable anesthetics appear to act on a single molecular target," says Sonner. "It looks like inhaled anesthetics act on multiple molecular targets. That makes it a more difficult problem to pick ...
Morton's first successful public demonstration of ether as an inhalation anesthetic was such a historic and widely publicised event that many consider him to be the "inventor and revealer" of anesthesia. However, Morton's work was preceded by that of Georgia surgeon Crawford Williamson Long, who employed ether as an anesthetic on March 30, 1842.
The Meyer-Overton correlation for anaesthetics. A nonspecific mechanism of general anaesthetic action was first proposed by Emil Harless and Ernst von Bibra in 1847. [9] They suggested that general anaesthetics may act by dissolving in the fatty fraction of brain cells and removing fatty constituents from them, thus changing activity of brain cells and inducing anaesthesia.
Halothane, sold under the brand name Fluothane among others, is a general anaesthetic. [5] It can be used to induce or maintain anaesthesia. [5] One of its benefits is that it does not increase the production of saliva, which can be particularly useful in those who are difficult to intubate. [5]
Sevoflurane is an inhaled anesthetic that is often used to induce and maintain anesthesia in children for surgery. [17] During the process of awakening from the medication, it has been associated with a high incidence (>30%) of agitation and delirium in preschool children undergoing minor noninvasive surgery. [ 17 ]
Isoflurane is always administered in conjunction with air or pure oxygen.Often, nitrous oxide is also used. Although its physical properties imply that anaesthesia can be induced more rapidly than with halothane, [10] its pungency can irritate the respiratory system, negating any possible advantage conferred by its physical properties.
General anaesthetics (or anesthetics) are often defined as compounds that induce a loss of consciousness in humans or loss of righting reflex in animals. Clinical definitions are also extended to include an induced coma that causes lack of awareness to painful stimuli, sufficient to facilitate surgical applications in clinical and veterinary practice.
It is often used together with other medications for anesthesia. [2] Common uses include during childbirth, following trauma, and as part of end-of-life care. [2] Onset of effect is typically within half a minute, and the effect lasts for about a minute. [1] Nitrous oxide was discovered between 1772 and 1793 and used for anesthesia in 1844. [3]