The Sheffield Museum of Anaesthesia presents its collection of mysterious, terrifying antique items once used to render people unconscious.
posted by Faint of Butt on Sep 12, 2009 - 25 comments

The day pain died. "The date of the first operation under anesthetic, Oct. 16, 1846, ranks among the most iconic in the history of medicine. It was the moment when Boston, and indeed the United States, first emerged as a world-class center of medical innovation. The room at the heart of Massachusetts General Hospital where the operation took place has been known ever since as the Ether Dome, and the word 'anesthesia' itself was coined by the Boston physician and poet Oliver Wendell Holmes to denote the strange new state of suspended consciousness that the city's physicians had witnessed. The news from Boston swept around the world, and it was recognized within weeks as a moment that had changed medicine forever." [Via]
posted by homunculus on Jun 9, 2009 - 46 comments

Have you ever been under anesthesia? Doctors are being warned about a bizarre but threatening phenomenon - that patients under anesthesia can experience vivid sexual dreams they believe are real.
posted by robbyrobs on Jun 22, 2005 - 71 comments

The Painful Truth. "The Iraq war is a new kind of hell, with more survivors - but more maimed, shattered limbs - than ever. A revolution in battlefield medicine is helping them conquer the pain."
posted by homunculus on Feb 4, 2005 - 17 comments

Surgery without anesthesia is something most of us are glad is now a relic of the past, but yoga teacher Yonah Offner decided it was a great opportunity to demonstrate the benefits of practicing Pranayama.
posted by 4easypayments on Sep 17, 2003 - 8 comments

Imagine drifting off to dreamy anaesthesia -induced sleep for some such surgery and having some medical student cram a digit up one of your holes. Apparently, it happens all the time in the name of "learning".
posted by vito90 on Jun 10, 2003 - 28 comments