Anesthesia

Modern anesthesiology can be divided into two types, pharmacological and non-pharmacological. Pharmacological anesthesia uses a wide variety of anesthetic agents to obtain varying degrees of sedation and pain control. The anesthesia is administered orally, by injection, or with a gas mask for inhalation. Examples of nonpharmacological anesthesia are the use of breathing techniques during conscious childbirth (Lamaze method A nineteenth-century physician administering chloroform prior to surgery (probably an amputation). Ether was one of the earliest anesthetics to be used, but was difficult to administer, as it made the patient choke. For a time it was replaced by chloroform, but made a comeback when chloroform proved even more dangerous. National Audubon Society Collection/Photo Researchers, Inc. Reproduced by of natural childbirth) and the ancient art of Chinese acupuncture. Non-pharmacological anesthesia requires special skills on the part of its practitioners, and its effects are not as reliable as pharmacological techniques.

Pharmacological anesthesia is described as either general or local.