HISTORY OF OCULAR ANESTHESIA

Abstract

Proper anesthetic management is an integral part of any successful eye surgery. Before the discovery of ether, most operative procedures presented a serious challange. Couching of the crystalline lens to cure cataract was performed more than a thousand years ago, although surgeons at that time had only primitive anesthetic and analgesic agents to ease the patient's misery. Over the years, various agents made from roots, barks, herbs, seeds, and flowers have been applied to the surgical field, but few of these substances proved adequate to produce relaxation or relieve pain. Under such conditions, it is difficult to imagine how extraocular procedures, let alone intraocular procedures, such as lens extraction, could be performed. Fortunately, over the last century, the search for surgical adjuncts to achieve anesthesia and analgesia has produced many advances, easing the ordeal of surgery for both the patient and the surgeon.