The history of pediatric anesthesia

The beginnings of pediatric anesthesiology go back to the center of nineteenth century, and it?s associated with a rural physician Crawford W. Long, MD, who in the 1842 recorded the first case of giving diethyl ether anesthesia to an eight-year-old boy. The start of development of contemporary pediatric anesthesia is considered to be in 1930: which marked two periods of progress. In the first period were developed anesthesia techniques and accessories adjusted to different children's ages. In the second period, modern anesthetic medications and supervision are introduced into everyday clinical practice in order to better protect vital organs and their functions in the child's body. In 1955 was established the first multidisciplinary pediatric intensive care unit at the Children?s Hospital of Goteburg in Sweden. Dr. Branka Mitrovic is considered to be the beginner of pediatric anesthesiology in our country, as she founded the Department of anesthesiology and reanimation in the University children's hospital in 1955. The history of pediatric regional anesthesia began after it?s introduction in adults, which occurred after the invention of cocaine in 1884. The Ministry of Health of the Republic of Serbia, in 2018, approved a specialisation in pediatric anesthesiology. The development of pediatric anesthesia is fascinating because it completely followed the development of pediatric surgery. Modern pediatric anesthesiology is entirely prepared to meet the needs of the most complex surgical interventions, as well as the treatment of critically ill children, and significantly contribute to the better outcomes of the treatment of pediatric surgical patients.