Beyond booze, bite blocks: 'Horrendous' Civil War pushed surgeons to use anesthesia, says UAB doc
by Traci Bratton
The Civil War was the bloodiest in U.S. history, but the huge number of battlefield injuries helped establish the regular use of anesthesia in the United States due to the experience gained by Union and Confederate doctors, according to Dr. Maurice S. Albin, a professor in the Department of Anesthesiology at The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).