Anesthesiology is the medical specialty that focuses on perioperative medicine and the administration of anesthesia. The American Society of Anesthesiologists define anesthesiology as “the practice of medicine dedicated to the relief of pain and total care of the surgical patient before, during and after surgery.”
Terminology varies between countries. In North America, the medical specialty is called anesthesiology, a doctor practicing it is termed an anesthesiologist, and the treatment delivered is referred to as anesthesia.By contrast, in the United Kingdom and other countries following the British tradition, both the medical specialty and the treatment delivered are referred to as anaesthesia or anaesthetics, and the physician who performs them is termed an anaesthetist (in North America, the word anesthetist indicates a certified anesthesiologist assistant who delivers anesthesia under the supervision of a physician) or certified registered nurse anesthetist who in most states in the U.S. require physician supervision.
One of the fundamental practices of anesthesiologists is that of general anesthesia in which a person is placed in a medical coma. This is performed to permit surgery without the individual responding to pain (analgesia) during surgery or remembering the surgery.
If general anesthesia is not necessary, then regional anesthesia can be performed to induce analgesia in a region of the body. For example, epidural administration of a local anesthetic is commonly performed on the mother during childbirth to reduce the pain while permitting the mother to be awake and active in labor & delivery (general anesthesia would not permit this).
Anesthesiologists often also undertake non-surgical pain relief and critical care management that include working in an intensive care unit.
An anesthesiologist is trained to provide pain relief and maintenance, or restoration, of a stable condition during and immediately following an operation, obstetric, or diagnostic procedure. It is the anesthesiologist’s foremost purpose and concern to protect the patient’s well-being and safety just prior to, during, and after surgery. Anesthesiologists have many responsibilities: preoperative evaluation of patients to determine conditions that may complicate surgery; management of pain and emotional stress during surgical, obstetrical, and medical procedures; provision of life support under the stress of anesthesia and surgery; immediate postoperative care of the patient; and knowledge of drugs and their interactions with anesthetic agents. Their functions also include long-standing and cancer pain management; management of problems in cardiac and respiratory resuscitation; application of specific methods of inhalation therapy; and emergency clinical management of various fluid, electrolyte, and metabolic disturbances.