100 Years of Critical Care in the Pages of Anesthesia & Analgesia

Abstract

The founding of Anesthesia & Analgesia (A&A) in 1922 was roughly contemporaneous with the creation of the first intensive care unit (ICU) in the United States at Johns Hopkins in 1923. Throughout the next 100 years, the pages of A&A have mirrored the development of critical care as its own distinct specialty. Although primarily a journal focused on intraoperative anesthesia, A&A has maintained a small but steady presence in critical care research. This review highlights the history and development of critical care publications in the pages of A&A from early observations on the physiology of critical illness (1922–1949) to the groundbreaking work of Peter Safar and others on cardiopulmonary resuscitation (1950–1970), the growth of modern critical care (1970–2010), and the 2020 to 2022 coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) era.

Celebrating the Centenary of Anesthesia & Analgesia

“…The electronic medical record, for example, has become an integral part of modern hospitals, and while it has many advantages, there are also significant problems. 21 Similarly, while we celebrate the huge advances in critical care medicine in this supplement, 22 we must also consider the issues of access to services, advance care planning, staff sustainability, and other humanistic aspects of our profession.…”