Anesthesiology is the branch of medicine that is concerned with the study and practice of anesthesia. It is a specialty requiring competency in general medicine, a broad understanding of surgical procedures, and a comprehensive knowledge of clinical obstetrics, chest medicine, neurology, pediatrics, pharmacology, biochemistry, cardiology, and cardiac and respiratory physiology. It is also the branch of medicine concerned with the relief of pain and the administration of medication to relieve pain during surgery or other invasive procedures. In medical practice the branch of medicine dedicated to relieving pain and inducing anesthesia during surgery and other medical procedures is called anesthesiology; the scope of anesthesiology includes non-surgery-related pain management; management of painful syndromes; monitoring, restoring, and maintaining hemostasis; teaching CPR; evaluating and applying respiratory therapy. In the 19th century, anesthesia in the operating room, where the surgeon was in command, was relegated to a minor role. Yet gradually physicians and surgeons recognized the need for anesthesiologists, well-trained specialist physicians dedicated full-time to anesthesia, who could extend surgical horizons by permitting operations previously scarcely conceivable and by allowing applications of surgical principles to patients previously considered too ill to withstand either anesthesia or operation. A few physicians were attracted by this opportunity early in the 20th century, but it was not until the mid-1930s that the specialty was officially recognized with the establishment of such medical societies as the American Board of Anesthesiology for certifying appropriately trained physician anesthetists. Today, in virtually every medical school, anesthesiology functions either as an autonomous division of surgery or a department of academics.
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