3 - History of Anaesthesia Society

than 170 in 1991. TCIe EARS holds reqular meetings and conferences and
has p-lrticipated in scientific events in th? USSR and also abroad. me
first direct international contacts were establis'lsd with the Finnish
Anae~thesiologists Society i~ 1958, but after the first two joint
meetings, the plitical insistence on cultural isolation from the
western world stow contacts until 1988. Closa contact.^ have always
been maintained with the btvian and Lithl~nian Anaesthesiolgists-
Reanimatoloyists Societies. lie have held regular weekend Smmer meetings
t:~roughout our country from 1969 to the present time. In 1969 sane of
the leading anaesthetists in Estonia organised a systemtic study of the
'state of the art' of intensive care in surgical hospitals,. This led to
the setting up of a regul~ postgraduate course in hsic elements of
intensive care given to doctors of all speci?lties at Tartu University.
Since 1975, advanced training and specialisation in anaesthesia and
intensive care has been provided by Tartu University Hospital within the
framewrk of an internship proqramne consisting of one year for
specialisation after six years at medical school. Up to this time the
official requirement for anaesthesia training was only five months.
Teaching anaesthasia and intensive care to medical underqraduat?s by
specialists in Tartu University dates back to the end of the 1950's but
official recognition of our specialty was not received until 1976, when
the Department of General Surgery a t the rledical Faculty was reorqanised
into Depilrtments of Anaest!lesiology, Reanimatoloqy and General !jurqery.
Ihe influ?me of basic anaesthetic textboaks
mis reimrkhle era of establishment of a new medical spcialty in
Estonia began in conditions of strict cultural isolation from all
Western influences .in the beqinrling of the 1350's. It is of interest to
follow some lines of medical thouqht which influenced this developnent.
In t!!e 50's an extensive overeqhasis on neuroreflectory theories
occurred in virtually every branch of mwicine due to the great
poplarity in t!e Soviot Union of H Labrit and 0 Huguenard's
publications abut hibrnothera.~ and the need for autonanic protection
and stabilisation. mis lead to the widespread use of p'lenothiazines
inllytic cocktails', aid the popllarity of so-called 'ptentiation' in
anaesthesia. A high canplication rate, which followed this deep
depression of autoregulstory mechanisms soon led to its abandonwnt.
Pco'wbly as some form of rnental colmteraction, there folloi~ed a brief
pried of popularity in the middle 60'3, of very li-qht levels of general
endotrac'7eal anaesthesia ilenoting t!~e stage of analgesia, as ppularised
by J F Wtusio. .h unacceptable number of patients complsining of
awareness and r?collection of events in t!?e operating room soon
tenninatd this em. FYm the second half of the 601s, ~ith the more
refplar deliveries of =stern anaest:~etic literature, the practice of
anaesthesia and intensive care berme more in line with contemporary
world practice. Unfort~lnately, there still remain severe restrictions in
the choice of snaezthetic dmgs and there is a lack of cont,mpo-rary
equipnent which continues to hamper our specialty's developnent.
Hopefully, in th.2 plitically new climate now emerging in Furr~e, there
are prs&xctives for radical changes to take pl~ice.