The development of ambulatory and office-based anesthesia

Abstract

Long, Wells, and Morton provided outpatient anesthesia in the 1840s. Nicoll in Scotland and Waters in the US gave outpatient anesthesia in the early twentieth century. Modern outpatient anesthesia began in 1959, with Canadian anesthetists Webb and Graves' report of their 6-month experience with 494 surgical patients, cared for as outpatients. In 1962 at UCLA, Cohen and Dillon opened the first ambulatory surgery program, in 1966 describing the safety and economic advantage of their approach. Free-standing outpatient surgical facilities followed in 1968 in Rhode Island, and in 1969 in Arizona.