Department of Anaesthetics, University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, UK.
Anaesthesia. 2015 Jan;70(1):93-103. doi: 10.1111/anae.12887. Epub 2014 Oct 28.
In 153 AD, the Roman physician Scribonius Largus identified that electric current had analgesic properties, instructing patients to stand on an electric ray for the treatment of gout. In 2014, transcranial magnetic stimulation was approved by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence for the treatment of migraine. Although separated by nearly two millennia, these milestones represent the evolution of the utilisation of electric current in medical and anaesthetic practice. Significant advances have been made over the last century in particular, and during the 1960s and 1970s, tens of thousands of patients were reportedly anaesthetised for surgical interventions using electric current as the anaesthetic agent. Many medical interventions, including transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation and deep brain stimulation, have evolved in the aftermath of investigations into electroanaesthesia; the potential for electric current to be an anaesthetic agent of the future still exists.
公元 153 年，罗马医生 Scribonius Largus 发现电流具有镇痛特性，指导患者站在电鳐上来治疗痛风。2014 年，经颅磁刺激技术获得英国国家卫生与保健优化研究所批准，用于治疗偏头痛。这两个里程碑虽然相隔近两千年，但代表了电流在医疗和麻醉实践中的应用演变。特别是在上个世纪取得了重大进展，在 20 世纪 60 年代和 70 年代，据报道有数以万计的患者使用电流作为麻醉剂接受手术干预。许多医疗干预措施，包括经皮电神经刺激和深部脑刺激，都是在电麻醉研究之后发展起来的；电流作为未来麻醉剂的潜力仍然存在。
