Date of Award

2014

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Natural Sciences

First Advisor

Scudder, Paul

Keywords

Anesthesia, Medical History, Physiology

Area of Concentration

Natural Sciences

Abstract

This thesis was structured into two distinct parts. The first part is a brief history of the development of both the field of anesthesia and anesthetic agents, while the second part is focused on the last 100 years and is less about the history of anesthesia and more about the pharmacological properties of the anesthetics and their effects on human physiology. Regarding the history section, I chose to highlight those people and events that I felt most important to the development of the field of anesthesia. The latter section is meant to delve more into the chemistry and biology associated with the different anesthetics. After discussing the major types of general anesthetics in use today, the effects of the drugs on cardiorespiratory physiology is considered to give perspective as to what is required of an anesthesiologist.

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