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Major Anesthetic Themes in the 1950s

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Abstract

The effects of World War II accelerated’and retarded’the rise of modern anesthesia. It arrested development in Europe, the USSR, and Asia, but hastened development in the US. The recruitment (drafting) of physicians into the US Armed Services for a brief period of training in anesthesia, followed by a mandated practice of anesthesia, caused this acceleration. Physicians forced to learn and practice anesthesia often discovered that the calling pleased them. Succinylcholine became available in 1951. Perhaps the most important advance of the 1950s arose from Bjørn Ibsen’s management of the 1952 polio epidemic in Copenhagen. His work led to the establishment of Intensive Care Medicine and Intensive Care Units, and to the development of ventilators and blood-gas analysis. The World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists was founded in 1955. The advances in fluorine chemistry, needed to develop the atomic bomb paved the way for Suckling’s synthesis of the inhaled anesthetic halothane. Released for clinical use in 1956, halothane soon displaced essentially all its predecessors. Important to the safe delivery of halothane, our ability to control the delivery of inhaled anesthetics increased enormously with the invention of the Copper Kettle and variable bypass vaporizers. Muscle relaxants were first used in humans in 1942. In 1954 Beecher and Todd’s outcomes research indicated that muscle relaxants could be a mixed blessing if not managed properly, if their residual effects were not reversed. In the 1950s we had two new drugs in addition to halothane’succinylcholine and chloroprocaine. Beecher successfully argued for the use of placebo-controlled experimentation, for the use of informed consent, and ultimately for the establishment of Institutional Review Boards (IRBs). Finally, in 1959, Webb and Graves reported their results with the first modern outpatient anesthesia.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The ventilation would potentially increase the inspired and alveolar halothane concentrations to lethal levels because of the use of the in-circuit vaporizer.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Edmond I Eger II MD

  2. Departments of Anesthesia, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Lawrence J. Saidman MD

  3. Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Rod N. Westhorpe OAM MB BS FRCA FANZCA

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  1. Edmond I Eger II MD
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  2. Lawrence J. Saidman MD
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  3. Rod N. Westhorpe OAM MB BS FRCA FANZCA
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Correspondence to Edmond I Eger II MD .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Edmond I Eger II MD Emeritus Professor

  2. Departments of Anesthesia, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Lawrence J. Saidman MD Emeritus Professor

  3. Geoffrey Kaye Museum of Anaesthetic History, Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Rod N. Westhorpe OAM, MB, BS FRCA, FANZCA Former Honorary Curator

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© 2014 Edmond I Eger, MD

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Eger, E., Saidman, L., Westhorpe, R. (2014). Major Anesthetic Themes in the 1950s. In: Eger II, E., Saidman, L., Westhorpe, R. (eds) The Wondrous Story of Anesthesia. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8441-7_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8441-7_8

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