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History of Anesthesia

Mission Statement: To preserve and to disseminate information about the history of physician anesthesia in California for the public and the anesthesia community. To increase engagement with history and to connect it to present-day practice.

View the Arthur E. Guedel Anesthesia collection on Calisphere.

Unveiling the Chronicles of Anesthesia: CSA’s 2024 Annual History Essay Contest 

The Committee on the History of Anesthesia welcomes submissions from California residents, fellows, and medical students for the 2024 History of Anesthesia in California Essay Contest. Essays will be judged in a blinded manner by the CSA History Committee on the following criteria: content, style, organization, accuracy, and formatting. Prior non-winning entries to this contest may also be edited and re-submitted if an original author is still in school or in training.  

Click here for more information.

The Story of Anesthesia

The CSA Committee on History, in collaboration with the ASA and Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology, has created a short three-minute, public-facing, animated video presentation that tells the “Story of Anesthesia.” This short film was created to help celebrate CSA’s 75 years as a professional society representing the medical specialty of Anesthesiology.

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