Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine

Anesthesia was in its infancy when the American Civil War began in 1861. The sheer number of casualties gave surgeons on both sides the opportunity to gain experience with the first two anesthetic agents developed — sulfuric ether and chloroform — according to a paper by a University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine anesthesiologist published in the October issue of the Scandinavian Journal of Pain.