9. significance of anaethesthetics in the discovery of medicine

Question 1

What was the main revolutionary impact of anaesthetics on surgery?

Answer 1

Eliminated pain, allowing for more complex and careful operations.

Question 2

Describe surgery before anaesthetics.

Answer 2

Brutal, terrifying, very fast; patients often died from shock and pain.

Question 3

Name two early anaesthetics and who popularised them.

Answer 3

Ether (Morton, 1846) and Chloroform (James Simpson, 1847).

Question 4

What was the immediate positive impact of anaesthetics on patients?

Answer 4

Made patients unconscious and insensible to pain during operations.

Question 5

What was the short-term positive impact of anaesthetics for surgeons?

Answer 5

They could take more time and be more meticulous, attempting longer, more intricate operations.

Question 6

What was the negative short-term impact of anaesthetics, known as the ‘Black Period’ of surgery?

Answer 6

Death rates after surgery initially increased due to unknowingly introducing more infection.

Question 7

What was an immediate danger associated with early anaesthetics like chloroform?

Answer 7

Could be fatal if dosage was wrong (e.g., Hannah Greener).

Question 8

What made the long-term positive impact of anaesthetics truly monumental?

Answer 8

When combined with antiseptic and aseptic surgical practices.

Question 9

How did anaesthetics enable modern surgery in the long term?

Answer 9

Enabled countless life-saving and life-improving complex surgeries (e.g., heart operations, organ transplants).

Question 10

How does the development of anaesthetics continue to impact medicine today?

Answer 10

Ongoing development of safer and more controllable anaesthetics has massively improved patient safety and outcomes.