POINT: False. Twenty-first century general anesthetics are nearly identical to the anesthetic techniques of the late 1990s. Consider this list of the most commonly administered anesthetic drugs in the United States in the present day (2018).

Anesthetic Drugs in the United States:

Medication                        Year introduced

Propofol                              1989

Sevoflurane                        1995

Nitrous oxide                      1846

Fentanyl                              1959

Versed                                 1985

Rocuronium                         1994

Succinylcholine                    1982

Zofran                                   1991

Bupivicaine                           1957

I review hundreds of anesthesia records each year from California and multiple other regions of America. I can attest that these nine medications are still the mainstays of most anesthetics. A typical standard general anesthetic includes Versed as an anti-anxiety premed, propofol as the hypnotic, sevoflurane +/- nitrous oxide as the maintenance vapor(s), fentanyl as the narcotic, Zofran for nausea prophylaxis, rocuronium or succinylcholine for muscle paralysis, and bupivicaine injected (usually by the surgeon) for long-lasting pain relief.

Has General Anesthesia ceased to evolve?

How can it be that general anesthesia has ceased to evolve? In this brave new world of the Internet, iPhones, iPads, and personal computers, how could anesthesiology have stalled out with 20^th-century pharmacology? My colleague Donald Stanski, MD PhD, former Chairman of Anesthesiology at Stanford and now an executive in pharmacology business, explained it to me this way: The existing anesthesia drugs are cheap and work well. The cost of research and development for each new anesthesia drug is prohibitively expensive, and for pharmaceutical companies there is no certainty that any new anesthesia drug would control a sufficient market share to make a profit.

I believe we would benefit from a new narcotic drug that would promise less side effects than the fentanyl/morphine analogues, i.e. less respiratory depression, nausea, and sedation. I believe we would benefit from a new ultra-short onset paralyzing drug without the side effects of succinylcholine, i.e. without the risks of muscle pain, hyperkalemic arrests, triggering of malignant hyperthermia, increased intracranial and intraocular pressure, or bradycardia. Someone may discover these products someday, but for the present time the older drugs enjoy the market share.

What about regional anesthesia?

When a patient needs a spinal anesthetic, the recipe of bupivicaine +/- morphine is unchanged from the 1990s. When a patient needs an epidural for surgery, the recipe of bupivicaine or lidocaine +/- narcotic is unchanged from the 1990s.

What about monitors of vital signs?

The standard monitoring devices of pulse oximetry, end-tidal CO2 monitoring, and other essential anesthesia vital sign monitors were developed and in use by the 1990s. I can think of no specific reason why a general anesthetic administered in 2018 would be safer than a general anesthetic administered in the 1990s.

COUNTERPOINT: True. Anesthesia in 2018 is markedly different from anesthesia in the 1990s. Most of the drugs in use haven’t changed, but current-day anesthesia providers practice in a cockpit surrounded by computers. Each operating room anesthesia location is the epicenter of computerized medical record-keeping machines, computerized Pyxis-style drug storage systems, computerized labeling machines, and bar-code reading billing machines. If you don’t understand how to command these high-tech devices, you’ll be unable to initiate an anesthetic at a university hospital. The adage that “the patient comes first” is sometimes lost in an array of LED displays, passwords, and keyboards.

There have been other significant changes in anesthesia practice since the year 2000:

• The most significant advance is the video laryngoscope, a vital tool for intubating difficult airways, which has facilitated endotracheal intubation in thousands of patients where 20^th-century rigid laryngoscope blades were not effective.
• Ropivicaine was released in the year 2000, and has the distinct advantage of long-lasting local anesthetic nerve blockade with less motor block than bupivicaine.
• Sugammadex is a remarkable advance, allowing for the reliable reversal of neuromuscular paralysis in only seconds. Sugammadex is the single most important new medication in the toolbox of the 21^st-century anesthesiologist.
• Ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia was developed in 1994, but became popular in the past ten years. Administering local anesthetic injections adjacent to major nerves grants non-narcotic pain relief to thousands of patients following orthopedic surgeries.
• Acute pain services utilize nerve blocks and other adjuncts to relieve post-operative discomfort. Pain service teams were available only in primitive forms in the 1990s. In fact, at Stanford we changed our name from the “Department of Anesthesiology” to the “Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine” since the turn of the millennium.

In closing:

At a wedding a bride is advised to wear something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue.

In the world of anesthesia we use some things old, some things new, nothing borrowed, and . . . we make sure our patients never turn blue.   🙂

The Anesthesia Consultant is written by Richard Novak, MD, an Adjunct Clinical Professor of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine at Stanford University.

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Published in September 2017:  The second edition of THE DOCTOR AND MR. DYLAN, Dr. Novak’s debut novel, a medical-legal mystery which blends the science and practice of anesthesiology with unforgettable characters, a page-turning plot, and the legacy of Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan.

KIRKUS REVIEW

In this debut thriller, tragedies strike an anesthesiologist as he tries to start a new life with his son.

Dr. Nico Antone, an anesthesiologist at Stanford University, is married to Alexandra, a high-powered real estate agent obsessed with money. Their son, Johnny, an 11th-grader with immense potential, struggles to get the grades he’ll need to attend an Ivy League college. After a screaming match with Alexandra, Nico moves himself and Johnny from Palo Alto, California, to his frozen childhood home of Hibbing, Minnesota. The move should help Johnny improve his grades and thus seem more attractive to universities, but Nico loves the freedom from his wife, too.

Hibbing also happens to be the hometown of music icon Bob Dylan. Joining the hospital staff, Nico runs afoul of a grouchy nurse anesthetist calling himself Bobby Dylan, who plays Dylan songs twice a week in a bar called Heaven’s Door. As Nico and Johnny settle in, their lives turn around; they even start dating the gorgeous mother/daughter pair of Lena and Echo Johnson. However, when Johnny accidentally impregnates Echo, the lives of the Hibbing transplants start to implode. In true page-turner fashion, first-time novelist Novak gets started by killing soulless Alexandra, which accelerates the downfall of his underdog protagonist now accused of murder. Dialogue is pitch-perfect, and the insults hurled between Nico and his wife are as hilarious as they are hurtful: “Are you my husband, Nico? Or my dependent?”

The author’s medical expertise proves central to the plot, and there are a few grisly moments, as when “dark blood percolated” from a patient’s nostrils “like coffee grounds.” Bob Dylan details add quirkiness to what might otherwise be a chilly revenge tale; we’re told, for instance, that Dylan taught “every singer with a less-than-perfect voice…how to sneer and twist off syllables.” Courtroom scenes toward the end crackle with energy, though one scene involving a snowmobile ties up a certain plot thread too neatly. By the end, Nico has rolled with a great many punches.

Nuanced characterization and crafty details help this debut soar.

Click on the image below to reach the Amazon link to The Doctor and Mr. Dylan:

The anesthesiaconsultant.com, copyright 2010, Palo Alto, California

For questions, contact:  rjnov@yahoo.com