History of Neurosurgical Anaesthesia

It is difficult to define the point a which neuroanaesthesia evolved into a recognizable subsection of the specialty of anaesthesia. Perhaps it is better related to the development of the specialty of neurosurgery itself. There is, however, one important difference. Harvey Cushing, a pioneer in this field, was performing neurosurgical operations before World War I. In the United States at that time, however, almost all the anaesthetics were given by technicians — usually nurses — who were directly responsible to the surgeon. They were not encouraged to think for themselves, only to keep the patients immobile, to report immediately to the surgeon if anything occurred amiss, and to use whatever drugs or techniques the surgeon felt might best facilitate his operation.