The most recognizable part of the anesthesiologist’s
work consists of maintaining the stability of the
patient’s multiple and complex organ systems during
surgical operations while providing freedom from
pain. To accomplish these sometimes opposing goals,
the anesthesiologist must have detailed knowledge of
the diseases affecting the patient and must be able to
base all therapeutic decisions on an astute understanding of physiology and pharmacology. Emphasizing
the serious nature of the anesthetic state, anesthesia
has been described as “a controlled overdose of drugs
requiring continuous intensive care of the patient.”
Understandably then, many founders of critical care
medicine were anesthesiologists and, by the same
token, much material in this book is immediately
applicable to the intensive care of critically ill patients.