Anesthesiology

A century and a half after the first administration of ether, at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and almost 30 years since the last review of anesthesiology in the Journal, it is fitting to consider recent advances in the field. 1 In the late 1960s, the National Institutes of Health decided to support training in clinical anesthesiology. 2 Since that time, anesthesia-related deaths have decreased dramatically. In this review, we discuss the preparation of patients for surgery, recent developments in anesthetic agents and techniques, multimodal pain management, and postoperative complications related to anesthesia. Preoperative Assessment and Preparation Approximately 28 million patients . . .