The History of Premedication

Abstract

“- An anaesthetic is a frightening adventure into the unknown over which a patient can exert no control, and few can meet this type of ordeal with equanimity”1. British Medical Journal, 1964. Prior to the discovery of anaesthesia, medication before surgery was the only way of diminishing the patient's suffering. In 1682, George Wedel, Professor of Medicine at Jena, suggested that opium could be given to a patient prior to an amputation so that he “… bears the burning and cutting of the limb with a readier spirit”2. Alcohol was often recommended for the same reason3. In 1805, Seishu Hanaoka, a Japanese surgeon, administered a potent oral mixture of alkaloids, largely from the Datura stramonium plant, to a woman for a mastectomy4. He called this mixture Tsusensan, successfully using it on many patients: it produced hours of complete unconsciousness – long before Morton demonstrated the effect of ether.