Anesthesia Advances During the Civil War

Abstract

The advent of general inhalation anesthesia, in the form of ether (1846) or chloroform (1847), revolutionized medicine for surgeons and patients. Its efficacy in wartime was quickly tested in the Civil War, establishing that painless surgery on the battlefield might be possible. Despite prior, widespread use of ether by American doctors, chloroform became the anesthetic agent of choice by Union and Confederate Army surgeons, due primarily to its nonflammability and the "rapidity of its effects [...] and from the small quantity required."

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 2014
Accession Number
AD1066827

Entities

People

  • Laura Cutter
  • Tim Jr Clarke

Organizations

  • National Museum of Health and Medicine

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Anesthesia
  • Biomedical Research
  • Chloroform
  • Civil War
  • Department Of Defense
  • Governments
  • Military Medicine
  • Standards
  • United States
  • War

Readers

  • Immunology
  • Medical or Health Care Field.
  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.