History of Canadian anesthesia

Abstract

The first reported anesthesia in a territory that would become part of Canada (in 1867) was in the British colonial province of New Brunswick, in January 1847. In the late 19th century, Canadian anesthesia was linked primarily with that in the UK, leading to a physician-based practice, which continues to the present. In the early 20th century, US influence increased. By the 1930s a true Canadian identity began to emerge and, in time, to dominate. The Canadian Society of Anaesthetists formed in 1920, but lapsed in 1929 with the start of the Anaesthesia Section of the Canadian Medical Association. The Montreal Society of Anaesthetists, established in 1930, became the Canadian Anaesthetists' Society (CAS) in 1943. The CAS was renamed the Canadian Anesthesiologists' Society in 1993. The CAS began a medical journal in 1954, an international education fund in 1967, and a research foundation in 1979.