techniki: History of general anesthesia

Evidence: 100 • authority: 72

Throughout recorded history, attempts at producing a state of general anesthesia can be traced back to the writings of ancient Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Akkadians, Egyptians, Persians, Indians, and Chinese. Despite significant advances in anatomy and surgical techniques during the Renaissance, surgery remained a last-resort treatment largely due to the pain associated with it. This limited surgical procedures to addressing only life-threatening conditions, with techniques focused on speed to limit blood loss. All of these interventions carried high risk of complications, especially death. Around 80% of surgeries led to severe infections, and 50% of patients died either during surge…

Evidence: 35 • authority: 72

Anesthesia (American English) or anaesthesia (British English) is a state of controlled, temporary loss of sensation or awareness that is induced for medical, veterinary, or criminal purposes. It may include some or all of analgesia (relief from or prevention of pain), paralysis (muscle relaxation), amnesia (loss of memory), and unconsciousness. An individual under the effects of anesthetic drugs is referred to as being anesthetized or sedated (these terms are avoided in legal writing involving criminal or domestic cases). A body part under the effects of local anesthetic drugs is referred to as being numbed. An anesthesiologist administers these drugs to minimize movement, destructive beha…

Evidence: — • authority: 88

Babylonian Epistemology in History. This chapter discusses the important role of Babylonian epistemology in history. While the Babylonians shared the aims of modern philosophers, they never abandoned the primacy of the texts, and actually found in them an unparalleled power to create. It was not physical reality but writing, with its creative processes, that determined the parameters of what was possible and needed to be investigated. The chapter first considers the creativity of the ancient Babylonian texts, citing as examples the Babylonian science of lexicography and the law codes. It then examines empiricism vs. rationalism in Babylonian writings and concludes with an overview of three…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

Caesarean section, also known as C-section, cesarean, or caesarean delivery, is the surgical procedure by which one or more babies are delivered through an incision in the mother's abdomen. It is often performed because vaginal delivery would put the mother or child at risk of injury or death. Reasons for the operation include, but are not limited to, obstructed labor, twin pregnancy, high blood pressure in the mother, breech birth, shoulder presentation, and problems with the placenta or umbilical cord. A caesarean delivery may be performed based upon the shape of the mother's pelvis or history of a previous C-section. A trial of vaginal birth after C-section may be possible. The World Hea…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

Opium (also known as poppy tears, or Lachryma papaveris) is the dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy Papaver somniferum. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which is processed chemically to produce heroin and other synthetic opioids for medicinal use and for the illegal drug trade. Opium's main psychoactive alkaloids, primarily morphine, act on μ-opioid receptors, causing analgesia, with long-term use leading to tolerance and dependence. The latex also contains the closely related opiates codeine and thebaine, and non-analgesic alkaloids such as papaverine and noscapine. The traditional, labor-intensive method of obtaini…

Evidence: — • authority: 92

A 5000-year overview of the history of pain through ancient civilizations to modern pain theories.. Pain and its management have been a predominant issue since the dawn of humanity. Pain has been the subject of much controversy and has constantly evolved across societies. The objective of this review is to trace the historical evolution of the concept of pain through the ages and to attempt to understand how modern theories of pain represent a legacy of ancestral knowledge passed down from culture to culture. We conducted a comprehensive review of primary and secondary sources across 6 major historical periods, including Pre-history, Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Modern,…