Anesthesiologist Assistant
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Definition of Anesthesia
*Total or partial loss of sensation, especially tactile sensibility, induced by disease, injury, acupucture,
anesthetic, such as chloroform or nitrous oxide.
* Local or general insensibility to pain with or without the loss of consciousness, induced by an anesthetic.
* A drug, administered for medical or surgical purposes, that induces partial or total loss of sensation and
may be topical, local, regional, or general, depending on the method of administration and area of the
body affected.

Word History:
The following passage, written
on November 21, 1846, by
Oliver Wendell Holmes, a
physician-poet and the father
of the Supreme Court justice
of the same name, allows us
to pin point the entry of
anesthesia and anesthetic into
English: "Every body wants to
have a hand in a great
discovery. All I will do is to
give you a hint or two as to
names or the name to be
applied to the state produced
and the agent. The state
should, I think, be called
'Anaesthesia' [from the Greek
word anaisthsia, "lack of
sensation"].
This signifies insensibility....
The adjective will be
'Anaesthetic.' Thus we might
say the state of Anaesthesia,
or the anaesthetic state." This
citation is taken from a letter
to William Thomas Green
Morton, who in October of
that year had successfully
demonstrated the use of
ether at Massachusetts
General Hospital in Boston.
Although anaesthesia is
recorded in Nathan Bailey's
Universal Etymological English
Dictionary in 1721, it is clear
that Holmes really was
responsible for its entry into
the language. The Oxford
English Dictionary has several
citations for anesthesia and
anesthetic in 1847 and 1848,
indicating that the words
gained rapid acceptance.



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This signifies insensibility....
The adjective will be
'Anaesthetic.' Thus we might
say the state of Anaesthesia,
or the anaesthetic state." This
citation is taken from a letter
to William Thomas Green
Morton, who in October of
that year had successfully
demonstrated the use of
ether at Massachusetts
General Hospital in Boston.
Although anaesthesia is
recorded in Nathan Bailey's
Universal Etymological English
Dictionary in 1721, it is clear
that Holmes really was
responsible for its entry into
the language. The Oxford
English Dictionary has several
citations for anesthesia and
anesthetic in 1847 and 1848,
indicating that the words
gained rapid acceptance.



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