Medical Animation News

It is easy to take modern medical advances for granted, particularly when no living person can recall functioning without this or that innovation. However, a simple 3D medical animation can make patients truly appreciate how lucky they are to live in the age of anesthesia.

Several studies have shown that medical visualizations are quite effective in this regard - that is, they can quickly and easily teach patients the history of anesthesia and the specifics of how it works today.

In one form or another, anesthesia has been around for thousands of years. But it wasn't until recently that this treatment modality was honed to the point that people were willing to undergo otherwise excruciating surgery.

According to Marvin Powell's historical essay "Wine and the Vine in Ancient Mesopotamia: The Cuneiform Evidence," wine and other basic fermented alcohols appear to have been the first and oldest sedatives.

The administration of this primitive anesthesia was pretty intuitive. Prior to surgery, patients simply drank themselves unconscious. It was up to doctors to then attempt a quick operation, and up to chance whether or not the patient survived.

The same was more or less true for other early anesthetics and sedatives, including opium, hashish and similar narcotics. The problem is that these substances do not necessarily shut out all pain, nor do they always leave a patient unconscious. Similarly, drinking large amounts of wine can result in alcohol poisoning or heart failure.

As any basic medical visualization on the subject will tell you, the science of anesthesia did not fully come into its own until the middle of the 1800s. It was in 1846 that American dentist William Morton and surgeon John Collins Warren made the first public demonstration of the use of ether as a general anesthetic.

In later remarks on the events, Morton described how Warren removed a neck tumor from a local printer at Massachusetts General Hospital, while hundreds of experts looked on. Morton claims that after the operation, Warren concluded by saying, "Gentlemen, this is no humbug."

Today, anesthesia is more humbug-free than ever. Advances in local, regional and general anesthesia mean that patients no longer have to experience the sensation of the scalpel at all. The may undergo complex surgeries without any memory of it.

Furthermore, medical animations have been developed to educate patients on the basics of anesthesiology and even calm anxious individuals prior to surgery.

Amerra provides custom medical animations, medical illustrations and interactive medical software. For additional information please contact us at 1.888.9AMERRA or e-mail info@amerra.com.