(BPT) - For more than a century, anesthesiologists have driven transformative advances in surgery, patient safety, critical care and pain management, shaping how medical care is delivered at life's most critical moments.
"Anesthesiologist-led innovations have changed the course of modern medicine," said Patrick Giam, M.D., FASA, president of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA). "While many of these breakthroughs took years of dedication and discovery, each turned once-impossible or dangerous care into routine, life-saving surgeries, pain management and critical care for millions of patients."
As the specialty celebrates Physician Anesthesiologists Week, Jan. 25-31, consider the following anesthesiologist-led innovations that shaped modern medicine.
1. Making surgery painless
Before anesthesia, surgery was rare and typically reserved for emergencies, such as amputations or setting broken bones. That changed in 1846 when the first public demonstration of surgical ether at Massachusetts General Hospital revolutionized medicine, enabling patients to undergo surgery without extreme pain. Incidentally, anesthesiologist Dr. Crawford Long had used ether privately for surgery years earlier starting in 1842. Anesthesiologists pioneered anesthesia and continue to refine it, from early anesthetics such as chloroform to modern drugs like sevoflurane that allow precise control and faster recovery.
2. Protecting every breath during surgery
Even after anesthesia was introduced, surgery remained dangerous because patients could stop breathing or choke. In 1878, a Scottish surgeon addressed this risk by inserting tubes into patients' windpipes to support their breathing. Since then, anesthesiologists have continued to advance airway management, developing specialized breathing tubes and tools — such as today's video-assisted technology — to help maintain critical airway and breathing functions. These advances enable more complex surgeries and reduce the risk of complications and death.
3. Ensuring newborn health
Invented in 1952 by anesthesiologist Dr. Virginia Apgar, the Apgar score transformed newborn care by giving doctors a fast, reliable and standardized method to assess an infant's health in the first minutes of life based on five signs (from skin tone to breathing). Before the Apgar score, newborn assessment was inconsistent and delays in vital care were common. Today, it is used worldwide to identify infants who need immediate care, such as oxygen or warming, and has played a major role in reducing infant mortality.
4. Creating the modern intensive care unit
During a 1952 polio epidemic, Danish anesthesiologist Dr. Bjørn Ibsen pioneered positive-pressure ventilation — forcing air into the lungs of patients who could not breathe on their own. This laid the foundation for modern ventilators and the creation of intensive care units (ICUs), enabling the support of critically ill patients for extended periods. This innovation has saved millions of lives worldwide, including during the COVID-19 pandemic.
5. Advancing patient safety
The familiar and steady beeping of monitors in the operating room and ICU represents some of the greatest safety advances in medicine. One of those monitors is the pulse oximeter. Introduced in the 1970s, it is a small device that clips onto a finger and measures oxygen levels based on blood flow, alerting doctors to dangerous changes before harm occurs. Anesthesiologists also introduced carbon dioxide monitoring for breathing, automated systems that continuously track vital signs during surgery and simulation-based training that prepares care teams for emergencies. Together, these advances are credited with transforming surgical safety and dramatically reducing preventable deaths.
6. Transforming pain management
From epidurals during childbirth to nerve blocks for knee replacement, anesthesiologists have transformed pain care and reduced reliance on opioids. Regional anesthesia allows many procedures to be performed on an outpatient basis and offers more effective options for managing chronic and postoperative pain.
7. Making complex life-saving surgeries possible
Open-heart surgery and organ transplantation are among the complex, high-risk procedures that are now possible due to anesthesiologists. They developed methods to precisely control breathing and circulation during surgery, as well as methods to safely cool the body, slowing metabolism and reducing the need for oxygen in vital organs to protect them during life-saving operations.
The anesthesiologist-led innovations continue today. The next generation of anesthesia breakthroughs is focused on even safer, more personalized care, employing the latest technology, including AI, to tailor medications in real time, better monitor consciousness during surgery and track recovery beyond the operating room.
To learn more about how anesthesiologists are at the forefront of modern medicine, protecting patients before, during and after surgery and other medical procedures, visit: https://www.asahq.org/madeforthismoment/.
