Department of Anesthesiology


The Ohio State University Medical CenterDepartment of Anesthesiology
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The Ohio State University Medical Center
History of the Department
History of the Department
Jay J. Jacoby, M.D., Ph.D. Endowed Chair in Anesthesiology
Dominic and Lisa Mandalfino Memorial Fund in Anesthesiology
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History and Accomplishments of the OSU Department of Anesthesiology

1945

  • Dr. Robert Zollinger is appointed as Professor of Surgery at OSU following five years service in the US Army.
 
  • At the time, anesthesia is administered by medical students, interns and nurses.

 

  • Dr. Zollinger urges Dr. Charles Doan, Dean of the OSU College of Medicine, to hire a full-time anesthesiologist for OSU.

1947

  • Dr. Doan, on a visit to the University of Chicago, meets Dr. Jacoby, who is just finishing his PhD program , and invites him to join OSU as its first Professor of Anesthesiology. Dr. Jacoby is trained both in OB-GYN and anesthesiology.
  • Because both Jacoby and Zollinger had extensive service in the Army during World War II, they become lifelong friends and colleagues.
  • Dr. Jacoby starts a residency program for anesthesiologists and a school for nurse anesthetists.
  • Anesthesia is established as a division of the Department of Surgery.

1951

  • OSU anesthesia develops a cure for the spinal headache, which involves introducing normal saline into the epidural space. This technique is found to be much safer than using the so called “blood patch”.

1953, 1955

  • With Dr. Karl Klaassen of the Department of Surgery, anesthesia demonstrates that vagal manipulation and severance is a safe procedure. Anesthesia also shows that vagal stimulation in the presence of hypoxia caused cardiac arrhythmias.

1953, 1960

  • OSU describes a new set of signs and designation of depth of anesthesia appropriate for pentothal and other anesthetics.

1958

  • Anesthesia invents a novel device for finding metal needles that fall on the floor. The device helps in supply counts in the OR.
  • The Oculo-Cardiac Reflex is triggered during ophthalmic surgery, by traction on the extra-ocular muscles. A vagal reflex slows or stops the heart.  Anesthesia shows that this can be prevented by an extra dose of atropine before the traction occurs.

1959

  • OSU anesthesia demonstrates that a small air embolism can be detected by the change it caused in heart sounds.  Rapid intervention stops the additional ingress of air before it becomes serious or fatal.  This simple technique involving a stethoscope over the heart has now been replaced by the Doplar monitor.
  • Anesthesia explores the use of sympathetic blocks (stellate ganglion blocks) for the various sympathetic dystrophies.  They find it valuable and recommends its use for the shoulder-hand syndrome, which may be a sequel of myocardial infarction.
  • OSU anesthesia is among the first in the country to use autologous blood for transfusion.

1947-1959

  • The hospital and ORs are located in Starling-Loving Hall.
  • Dr. Jacoby introduces and teaches the practice of endotracheal intubation during anesthesia at OSU.
  • Dr. Jacoby introduces and teaches the use of paralyzing drugs by anesthesiologists during surgery.
  • Intravenous fluid infusions introduced at OSU.
  • Anesthetic-related explosions, a common problem throughout the country with ether, vinethene, cyclopropane, ethylene and ethyl chloride anesthetics, are reduced at OSU with the introduction and high humidity and conductive flooring in the ORs,  equipment grounding and prohibition of electric instruments and cautery.
  • Balanced anesthesia and non-explosive anesthetics are developed and introduced at OSU, which dramatically improves patient safety.
  • Dr. Jacoby establishes a post operative anesthesia recovery room, one of the first in the country, and trains nurses to care for patients awakening from anesthesia.
  • Drs. Jacoby, Doan and Zollinger acquire funds to build Doan Hall and its north wing. Surgery now is now performed in Doan Hall (and continues today). Starling-Loving Hall is converted from a hospital to offices and laboratories.
  • Having proven its worth at OSU, anesthesia separates for the Department of Surgery, and becomes one of the first independent anesthesia departments in the US.
  • Study in Anesthesiology showed that more residents in anesthesia came from OSU than from any other school in the US.
  • OSU Department of Anesthesiology branches out to staff Children’s Hospital, St. Francis Hospital (Columbus’ charity hospital) and Franklin County Tuberculosis Hospital.

1956-1960

  • Several studies show that OSU has the lowest anesthesia mortality rate of any hospital in the US.

1957

  • OSU’s interest in resuscitation and the prevention of death extended beyond the operating room.  OSU arranges to have an anesthetist called whenever a patient was in severe difficulty and threatening to die anywhere in the hospital.  From this effort, the Code Blue system develops, which is adopted worldwide.

1954-1960

  • OSU shows in several studies that a needle inserted into the trachea can deliver enough oxygen to sustain life until more definitive steps could be taken, namely endotracheal intubation or tracheotomy.

1959

  • OSU develops the world standard anesthesia intervention for patients undergoing electric shock therapy for treatment of severe depression. The technique involves respiratory support, anesthesia and muscle relaxants and proves to dramatically decrease morbidity and mortality.

1958-1959

  • OSU Anesthesiology publishes several landmark papers showing the importance of establishing an airway and providing pulmonary ventilation in preventing acute respiratory episodes and possible death.

1959

  • Dr. Jacoby leaves OSU as chair of the department and joins Marquette University at the request of Dr. Edwin Ellison, chair of the Department of Surgery. Dr Hamelberg becomes chair of the OSU Department of Anesthesiology.  Under Dr. Hamelberg, research is conducted in the areas of drug incompatibilities, hypersplenism, catecholamine levels, muscle relaxants, gastric emptying, crushed chest injuries, impurities in nitrous oxide, postoperative nausea and vomiting, brachial plexus blocks, treatment of tetanus, treatment of cerebral hypoxia, dilutional hypervolemia, pharmacology of anesthetic agents, EKG changes during anesthesia, aspiration pneumonitis and spinal and epidural anesthesia.
  • By now, the department has 18 attending anesthesiologists, the residency staff has expanded to 25 and the department is training 20 nurse anesthetists each year.

1959, 1961

  • Anesthesia develops a positive identification of pulmonary embolism, a frequent cause of death, that before could only be determined by autopsy.
  • During removal of parotid gland tumors, branches of the facial nerve may be spared if they can be identified. OSU anesthesia develops a method for identifying facial nerve branches using nerve stimulator. The method becomes a standard surgical technique.

1961

  • OSU develops a technique of endotracheal intubation which can be used, even if the larynx can not be visualized (blind intubation), even if the jaw was ankylosed or wired shut.  A teaching film is made to illustrate the technique.  As a result of this technique development, no patient at OSU dies because he can not be intubated; no patient has to have a tracheotomy; no patient has to have his operation cancelled.  This technique is developed long before fiberoptic instruments are invented.

1979

  • Dr. Hamelberg is succeeded by Dr. John S. McDonld as chair of the department.

1979-1984

  • Engineers in the department develop one of the first computerized integrated anesthesia monitoring systems and deploy the system in the OR. The system includes physiologic data, monitoring of inhaled gases using shared mass spectrometry, and an integrated alarm system. The system is the forerunner of several commercial products.

1980

  • Anesthesia installs capnography monitors in the ORs, making OSU one of the first hospitals to employ respiratory carbon dioxide monitoring interoperatively on a routine basis.

1988-1995

  • Anesthesia conducts three landmark time-motion studies of anesthesiologists in the OR to determine how their OR time is spent and how computerized recordkeeping influences their practice.

 1990

  • The Arthur G. James Comprehensive Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute opens. The hospital has six operating rooms dedicated to cancer surgery. The department extends its cancer pain management practice the new hospital.

 1995

  • Department engineers develop a novel method for measuring myocardial ischemia and reperfusion using myocardial electrical impedance. OSU anesthesia, in collaboration with the OSU Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, becomes the first group in the world to measure (with FDA approval) myocardial electrical impedance clinically on human subjects and demonstrate its safety and efficacy. The device is patented.

 1998

  • Dr. Michael Howie, vice chair of the department, is named interim chair and a search begins to find a new permanent chair.

 1999

  • Dr. Glen Gravlee is named chair of the department.
 
  • OSUMC purchases Park Medical Center in downtown Columbus OH and creates OSU Hospital East. The hospital has six operating rooms and becomes the focus of regional anesthesia and orthopedic surgery as well as pain management.  Residents perform their regional anesthesia rotation at OSU Hospital East.

 2000

  • The department introduces EEG brain wave/depth of conscious monitoring as a new standard of clinical care in the operating room. The monitors are installed in all operating rooms in all University Hospital facilities.

 2002

  • Dr. Michael Howie is named chair of the department.

 2004

  • Richard M. Ross Heart Hospital opens. The new heart hospital has six high-tech operating rooms dedicated to heart surgery.

 2005

  • Dr. Daniel Sedmak, Vice President of the OSU Health System, becomes the interim chair of the Department of Anesthesiology. A search begins for a new permanent department chair.
 
  • Transesophageal echo cardiography (TEE) is introduced for monitoring heart patients in the operating room. Several new anesthesia faculty members, trained and certified in TEE, are recruited who will utilize TEE in the heart rooms and train anesthesia faculty and residents in the new technology.

 2005

  • The department and Helene Kurshan Jacoby establish the Jay J. Jacoby MD, PhD Endowed Chair in Anesthesiology in honor and memory of Dr. Jay Jacoby, founder of the OSU Department of Anesthesiology. The position will support a department chair who is a nationally eminent anesthesiologist, professor of anesthesiology and an outstanding educator whose focus is to support the advancement of medical knowledge in the field through teaching, improved patient care and research.
 
  • There are new developments in clinical anesthesia. The pain fellowship program receives full accreditation until 2009. The department creates a neuro-anesthesia division. Chronic pain evolves into the OSU Spine Center, and now provides a broader team concept in this area of anesthesia care.

 2007

  • Dr. David A. Zvara returns to OSU and is named the Jay J. Jacoby Professor and Chair in Anesthesiology after serving as professor and section for cardiothoracic anesthesiology in the Department of Anesthesiology at the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. Dr. Zvara did his residency training at OSU where he served as chief resident in the department. He brings a strong research and medical education background to the department, having written more than 70 journal articles, abstracts and book chapters and having delivered over 80 invited lectures in the fields of anesthesiology and graduate medical education.
 
  • The department establishes the OSU Preoperative Assessment Center (OPAC). The new center will not only improve patient anesthesia care but promises to enhance the hospital’s perioperative operation and efficiency.
 
  • Neurosurgery and neuro-anesthesia move into the 21st century with the introduction of an intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging system in the operating room. The low-field (0.15 Tesla) will allow surgeons to track their work in tumor resection intraoperatively and promises to improve patient care and hospital efficiency as well as reduce patient hospital stay and patient costs. The system presents the anesthesiologist with new and exciting challenges. It has given the Department of Anesthesiology several new avenues of research to pursue over the coming years.

 2008

  • Research continues to flourish in the department. Anesthesia researchers develop and publish the first animal model of chronic ischemic heart failure (CHF). Their most important contribution is the first ever published study of the use of partial left ventricular assist device support in the CHF model.  Researchers apply functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study brain activation caused by pain and in response to anesthesia. The department has nearly $4M in basic research grants, including several NIH grants. In addition, the department has numerous industry-sponsored clinical trials ongoing. Researchers publish 23 peer-reviewed journal articles and 21 conference abstracts.

 

Prominent Graduates from the Residency Program

Dr. John Garvin

Chief of Anesthesia, Columbus Children’s Hospital

Dr. William Hamelberg

Chief of Anesthesia, Medical College of South Carolina and Chair, OSU Department of Anesthesiology

Dr. Morgan Allison

Chief of Anesthesia, OSU Dental College

Dr. John Boyle

First anesthesiologist in St. Petersburg, FL

Dr. John Jones

Professor and Chair of Anesthesiology, University of Nebraska, and promoted to Hospital Medical Director and Vice President of the College

Dr. Peter Bosomworth

Professor and Chair of Anesthesiology, University of Kentucky, and promoted to Vice President of the University for Medical Affairs