Intravenous Anesthesia for Cosmetic Surgery

In the 1840s came the first case reports of successfully anesthetizing patients for surgical procedures. The agents used were inhalational agents, specifically diethyl ether and nitrous oxide. Crawford Long, Horace Wells, and William T. G. Morton will forever be credited with bringing the benefits of anesthesia to patients undergoing surgery. No longer would surgical patients needlessly suffer. In this era, the only ways to deliver an anesthetic systemically was by inhalation or ingestion (hollow needles had not yet been invented). Inhalation agents provided a rapid, reliable, predictable way to anesthetize patients compared with ingesting alcohol and/or opiates. Hollow needles were introduced in the late 1800s.