World Anaesthesia Day is a global healthcare event celebrated on the 16th of October every year to raise awareness about the importance of anaesthesia in medicine. This day also recognises the anaesthesia professionals, often known as anaesthesiologists, who help patients undergo surgery without experiencing any discomfort.
On this day, various local, national, and international organisations, medical professionals, hospitals, and clinics join together and conduct several events and campaigns like film screenings, exhibitions and seminars to acknowledge the first successful demonstration of anaesthesia.
Importance of World Anaesthesia Day
Anaesthesia is a medical procedure that prevents patients from feeling pain during treatments like surgery, tissue sample removal (e.g., skin biopsies), dental work, certain screening, and diagnostic tests. It enables patients to undergo surgeries that improve their health and long lives.
Around 80% of patients with cancer will require anaesthesia and surgical care for treatment or palliation. Cancer patients require well-coordinated multidisciplinary treatment, and anaesthesia must be seen as a critical component of this and suitably resourced.
To provide anaesthesia, doctors use drugs called anaesthetics. Scientists have developed a collection of anaesthetic drugs with different effects. These drugs include general, regional, and local anaesthetics.
General anaesthesia affects the entire body, making patients unconscious and unable to move. Local anaesthetics treat a specific body area, such as a single tooth. They are frequently used in dentistry for eye procedures like cataract removal and tiny skin growths like warts and moles. Regional anaesthetics treat more prominent body areas, such as an arm, a leg, or anything below the waist. This type of aesthetic is commonly used for hand and joint surgeries, to alleviate the agony of childbirth, or during a C-section delivery.
World Anaesthesia Day 2023 Theme
This year 2023, the World Anaesthesia Day theme is “Anaesthesia and Cancer Care”, a call to raise awareness of the vital role that anaesthesia plays in the treatment of cancer and advocating for strengthening anaesthesia services to enhance cancer patient outcomes.
History of World Anaesthesia Day
World Anaesthesia Day was declared by World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists (WFSA). In 1846, in remembrance of W.T.G. Morton, who made the first successful official demonstration of ether as an anaesthetic on October 16. Every year, the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists (WFSA) focuses on a different facet of anaesthetic treatment, and related events are held all around the world.
