Anesthesiology News Presents

In the previous episodes, we relived the incredible achievements of the discoverers of anesthesia in Davy, Morton, Simpson and Long. But another individual may be just as important to the progress of the specialty as those who discovered it.

John Snow was a doctor and scientist in London when he first witnessed a demonstration of ether anesthesia. Even though he was not credited with the discovery of ether or chloroform, he became a leader in the advancement of modern medicine in England.

In fact, it was Snow’s forward-thinking mentality that laid the foundation for the spirit of the specialty of anesthesiology: the idea that there is always a better answer to the problem than the one we have now. To do that, Snow developed the first ever anesthesia practice standards to guide his colleagues in the use of anesthesia.

In this episode, we turn our attention to our future, and explore how understanding Snow’s original ether anesthesia practice standards was just the first chapter in a 175-year story of anesthesia innovation. We will also discuss the current outlook of our modern research into the development of more targeted anesthesia drugs and more.

This is episode 3 of season 3 of “Anesthesiology News presents The Etherist.” The fourth and final episode of the season will be available on Nov. 23, 2021.

Sponsored by Masimo and Medtronic.

• Fenster JM. _Ether Day: The Strange Tale of America’s Greatest Medical Discovery and the Haunted Men Who Made It._ Perennial; 2002.
• Knight PR III, Bacon DR. An unexplained death: Hannah Greener and chloroform. Anesthesiology. 2002;96:1250–1253.
• Mets B. Leadership in Anaesthesia: Five Pioneers of the Deadly Quest for Surgical Insensibility. Cambridge Scholars Publishing; 2021.
• Mets B. Waking Up Safer?: An Anesthesiologist’s Record. SilverWood Books; 2018.
• Richardson BW. Memoir of the Author: John Snow, Chloroform and Other Anaesthetics. London: John Chruchill; 1858.
• Snow SJ. Blessed Days of Anaesthesia: How Anaethetics Changed the World. Oxford University Press; 2008.
• Sykes K, Bunker J. Anaesthesia and the Practice of Medicine: Historical Perspectives. 1st ed. CRC Press; 2007.

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The discovery of chloroform was closely intertwined with ether anesthesia because of the relative closeness of their discoveries, but it did not take long for the early pioneers of anesthesia use to understand the enormous difference between the two anesthetic agents.

From October 1846 to November 1847, anesthesia providers used ether to ease pain in surgery and it might have seemed as if a golden age in medicine was just beginning, but tragedy would eventually strike the growing specialty of anesthesiology. Hannah Greener’s experience with the use of chloroform anesthesia as a patient would mark a major crisis point for the early advocates of anesthesia.

This season of the series is about revisiting the history of anesthesiology while also reimagining those events based on what we know today. But that story can’t be told without also diving into the dangers of the use of anesthesia. It is perhaps the most important piece of knowledge that we possess now, that those early anesthesiologists were not sufficiently aware of at the time.

This is episode 2 of season 3 of “Anesthesiology News presents The Etherist.”

Sponsored by Masimo and Medtronic.

• Fenster JM. _Ether Day: The Strange Tale of America’s Greatest Medical Discovery and the Haunted Men Who Made It._ Perennial; 2002.
• Knight PR III, Bacon DR. An unexplained death: Hannah Greener and chloroform. Anesthesiology. 2002;96:1250–1253.

• Mets B. Leadership in Anaesthesia: Five Pioneers of the Deadly Quest for Surgical Insensibility. Cambridge Scholars Publishing; 2021.

• Mets B. Waking Up Safer?: An Anesthesiologist’s Record. SilverWood Books; 2018.

• Snow SJ. Blessed Days of Anaesthesia: How Anaethetics Changed the World. Oxford University Press; 2008.

• Sykes K, Bunker J. Anaesthesia and the Practice of Medicine: Historical Perspectives. 1st ed. CRC Press; 2007.

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On Friday, Oct. 16, 1846, William Thomas Green Morton changed the world of medicine with his demonstration of vaporized ether anesthesia at Massachusetts General Hospital, in Boston.

The discovery and public demonstration of ether anesthesia was not a sudden achievement, though. In fact, it was the results of incremental scientific gains by dozens of scientists from Raymond Lully, the Spanish alchemist who first distilled sulfuric ether in 1275, to Joseph Priestly, the English researcher who developed nitrous oxide in 1774, and finally to Morton.

But there is more to the story than those early pioneers could have known. This season we will be retelling and reimagining the story about the dawn of anesthesia use with a slight twist. We will also dive into the latest research into the mechanisms of anesthesia’s effects on the brain—knowledge the early innovators in anesthesia could not have realized in their time.

This is episode 1 of season 3 of “Anesthesiology News presents The Etherist.” Episode 2 will be available on Oct. 26, 2021.

Sponsored by Masimo and Medtronic.

• Fenster JM. Ether Day: The Strange Tale of America’s Greatest Medical Discovery and the Haunted Men Who Made It. Perennial; 2002.
• Mets B. Leadership in Anaesthesia: Five Pioneers of the Deadly Quest for Surgical Insensibility. Cambridge Scholars Publishing; 2021.
• Mets B. Waking Up Safer?: An Anesthesiologist’s Record. SilverWood Books; 2018.
• Snow SJ. Blessed Days of Anaesthesia: How Anaethetics Changed the World. Oxford University Press; 2008.
• Sykes K, Bunker J. Anaesthesia and the Practice of Medicine: Historical Perspectives. 1st ed. CRC Press; 2007.

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Before the discovery of ether anesthesia, surgery was an excruciating experience for patients, their loved ones and even the surgeons who performed the operations.

In the 1840s, an important scientific breakthrough changed the course of medical history—the discovery of anesthesia. However, over several decades leading up to that historic discovery, the potential for less painful surgery existed without anyone managing to connect the dots between a series of scientific developments with nitrous oxide and the need for anesthesia in surgery. Those decades presented a stark missed opportunity for all surgery patients of the time, and a true conundrum affectionately known as “laughing gas.”

In the prologue for season 3 of “Anesthesiology News presents The Etherist,” we delve into the decades-long conundrum of the coexistence of anesthesia—in the form of nitrous oxide and ether—and the continuation of painful surgery during the early 19th century.

Episode 1 of The Etherist will be available on Oct. 16, 2021—175 years after the original demonstration of ether anesthesia, now known as Ether Day.

Sponsored by Masimo and Medtronic.

• Fenster JM. Ether Day: The Strange Tale of America’s Greatest Medical Discovery and the Haunted Men Who Made It. Perennial; 2002.
• Mets B. Leadership in Anaesthesia: Five Pioneers of the Deadly Quest for Surgical Insensibility. Cambridge Scholars Publishing; 2021.
• Mets B. Waking Up Safer?: An Anesthesiologist’s Record. SilverWood Books; 2018.
• Snow SJ. Blessed Days of Anaesthesia: How Anaethetics Changed the World. Oxford University Press; 2008.
• Sykes K, Bunker J. Anaesthesia and the Practice of Medicine: Historical Perspectives. 1st ed. CRC Press; 2007.

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In this new season of “Anesthesiology News presents The Etherist,” we celebrate the 175th anniversary of the original Ether Day by looking back at the origin of anesthesiology as a modern medical specialty.

We will revisit those early days of discovery and innovation and the people who made it all possible, but we won’t stop with the history of anesthesia. This season we will also dive into the emergence of new research that has revealed the basic effects of how anesthetic drugs work in the first place.

Join us on this journey into the past as we uncover what those early pioneers of anesthesia knew and didn’t know as they made one of the most significant medical discoveries in history.

This new season of The Etherist will be available on Oct. 16, the 175th anniversary of Ether Day.

Sponsored by Masimo and Medtronic.

1. Fenster JM. Ether Day: The Strange Tale of America’s Greatest Medical Discovery and the Haunted Men Who Made It. Perennial; 2002.
2. Mets B. Leadership in Anaesthesia: Five Pioneers of the Deadly Quest for Surgical Insensibility. Cambridge Scholars Publishing; 2021.
3. Mets B. Waking Up Safer?: An Anesthesiologist’s Record. SilverWood Books; 2018.
4. Snow SJ. Blessed Days of Anaesthesia: How Anaethetics Changed the World. Oxford University Press; 2008.
5. Sykes K, Bunker J. Anaesthesia and the Practice of Medicine: Historical Perspectives. 1st ed. CRC Press; 2007.

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In this exclusive feature of “Anesthesiology News Presents,” Jodi Kuhlman, MD, comes forward to share her story of fentanyl addiction and drug diversion for the very first time. Kuhlman’s story was first published anonymously in a feature in the women’s magazine Marie Claire, in 2019. She recently decided to come forward to share her story directly to bring more awareness about the dangers of drug abuse and addiction for anesthesiologists.

Kuhlman is an anesthesiologist in Calhoun, Ga. She has also partnered with IntelliGuard in a joint effort to advocate for better drug diversion practices and awareness in hospitals around the United States.

“Anesthesiology News Presents” is the podcast network for Anesthesiology News including “On the Case,” a behind-the-scenes look into the popular case reports published in the news magazine; “Ask the Experts,” an up-close and personal conversation series with some of the leading experts in the field; and “The Etherist,” the flagship series that delves into the key stories shaping the specialty in the past, present and future.

Link to article in Marie Claire

Link to panel discussion with Intelliguard

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In this episode of “Ask the Experts,” Sonia Vaida, MD, comes on the show to explain her process for editing new reviews and case reports for “The Frost Series” every month in Anesthesiology News. She also shares her best advice on how to write reports to get them published for the first time.

Vaida is the clinical editor of “The Frost Series” for Anesthesiology News. She is also a professor of anesthesiology and obstetrics and gynecology, the vice chair for research, and the director of obstetric anesthesia in the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.

“Ask the Experts” is a conversation podcast series from the “Anesthesiology News Presents” channel. It features up close and personal Q&A interviews with leading experts in the field of anesthesiology on topics such as difficult airways and women in medicine.

• Link to The Frost Series

• Link to IMDB page for Zorba the Greek

• Link to Zorba the Greek, in paperback

• Send us an email submit a case for The Frost Series

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In this episode of “On the Case,” Peter J. Papadakos, MD, discusses a case report he wrote in the Journal of the American Academy of PAs (2021;34[4]:33-36) about a 54-year-old man who was transferred with a large right frontal intracerebral hemorrhage after ingesting kratom.

Papadakos is a professor of anesthesiology, surgery, neurology and neurosurgery, and the director of critical care medicine at the University of Rochester, in New York. He is also a member of the Anesthesiology News editorial advisory board.

“On the Case” is an interview-driven podcast series, in which we take a behind-the-scenes look at the popular case reports that are published in Anesthesiology News. We interrogate the authors of those case reports about what it was like to experience those clinical situations and why they decided to write about them afterward.

• Link to Case Report

• Link to Kratom Commentary in Anesthesiology News

• Link to Submit Your Own Case Report

• Tell us what you thought of the first season of “On the Case”

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In this episode of “Ask the Experts,” Peggy Seidman, MD, joins us to discuss dental anesthesia and the need for more qualified anesthesia providers for routine office-based dental procedures, especially in pediatric cases. She also shares her favorite section of The New York Times and one thing that has inspired her throughout her career.

Seidman is a board-certified pediatric anesthesiologist, practicing in Cleveland. She partners with SmileMD, a mobile anesthesia services company founded by anesthesiologists, to provide anesthesia services for local dental procedures.

“Ask the Experts” is a conversation podcast series from the “Anesthesiology News Presents” channel. It features up close and personal Q&A interviews with leading experts in the field of anesthesiology on topics such as difficult airways and women in medicine.

• Link to Dr. Seidman’s commentary

• Link to resources on anesthesia for children’s dental work

• Link to SmileMD

• Send us an email to submit questions for future guests

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In this episode of “On the Case,” Matthew Shachner, DO, discusses his case report about a 2-year-old girl who developed malignant hyperthermia during a routine dental cleaning under general anesthesia. The patient had presented to the hospital for the procedure due to poor dentition, and it was her first time undergoing general anesthesia.

Shachner is an anesthesiologist in the Department of Anesthesiology at the Anesthesiology Consultants Exchange, P.C., in Cleveland, Tenn.

“On the Case” is an interview-driven podcast series, in which we take a behind-the-scenes look at the popular case reports that are published in Anesthesiology News. We interrogate the authors of those case reports about what it was like to experience those clinical situations and why they decided to write about them afterward.

• Link to Case Report
• Link to The Malignant Hyperthermia Association of the United States (MHAUS)
• Link to Submit Your Own Case Report

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