Mount Sinai's Department of Anesthesiology has a long history of providing care to patients in the hospital, as well as training physicians to become proficient in providing anesthetics. The first professional anesthetists were appointed to the staff in 1902. Their job was to teach the house staff officers how to give anesthesia, as well as to administer it themselves, as needed. At that time, chloroform and ether were used, but unmixed ether was abandoned. After Carl Koller's work in 1888, cocaine had been adopted as a local anesthetic. Koller later joined the Mount Sinai staff in Ophthalmology.
In 1903, a growing interest in surgery was evidenced by Mount Sinai's establishment of two anesthetizing rooms and two recovery rooms across from the operating rooms. In 1905, Thomas Bennett was appointed Anesthetist. He was well known for his development of the Bennett apparatus for the administration of nitrous oxide and ether gas. He remained on the staff until his death in 1931. He was joined over the years by others whose titles were "Anesthetists" or "Visiting Anesthetists." They were part-time physicians who maintained private practices, as well as taught medical students and house staff from the Surgery Department. There were also intermittent groups of full-time or "Resident" Anesthetists.
The leaders of the Department included Harry Goldman, Bernard Eliasberg, and William Branower, who began at Mount Sinai in 1908 and in 1936 developed a respirator that was widely accepted. By 1940, Drs. Branower and Eliasberg were the Anesthetists, with a staff of over ten physician and nurse anesthetists. When Dr. Branower died in 1943, Dr. Bernard Eliasberg became the first sole chief of the department.
Dr. Eliasberg started in the Department in 1910 when he was appointed the Resident Anesthetist to the Private Pavilion. He was interested in the developing field of thoracic surgery and worked closely with surgeon Charles Elsberg, who is credited with devising the first portable apparatus for the intratracheal insufflation of air and ether in 1910. By 1912, Elsberg reported on 400 cases using this method, with Eliasberg administering the anesthetic for most of them. Dr. Eliasberg was a founder of the New York State Society of Anesthesiologists and an original member of the American Board of Anesthesiology. Dr. Eliasberg is the only Mount Sinai Anesthesiologist to receive the Mount Sinai Alumni's prized Jacobi Award.
In 1943 the Department graduated its first resident, Gerda J. Weil but the residency program was not formalized until 1950, the year Dr. Eliasberg retired and Dr. Milton Adelman was appointed Chief. There were five resident slots for that year. In 1951, a second year of the residency was approved. During the Adelman years the Department worked on testing various anesthetic agents and researching allergic reactions during anesthesia. The Inhalation Therapy service became part of the Department in 1957.
Dr. Adelman retired as chief in 1962 and was succeeded by Dr. Leslie Rendell-Baker, Chairman from 1962 to 1979. Dr. Rendell-Baker was the first full-time Chief of the Department, and oversaw the transition of the Department as the Mount Sinai School of Medicine was opened in 1968. During the early 1960s, more full-time staff and residents were added. The cases numbered consistently over 12,000 each year, with a third of those being for obstetrical care. By 1968, there were over 15,000 cases annually on average. In 1977, this number had increased to 18,000, with 3,000 obstetrical cases.
Anesthesiology changed over these years with the evolution of Mount Sinai's first intensive care units, the addition of providing pain relief for chronic pain sufferers, and intensive respiratory therapy. Mount Sinai acquired a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, and this too impacted on the Department and its research programs. The Department was very involved with planning for the OR suites for the Annenberg Building, which opened fully in 1974. This was the first time that there was a 24-hour recovery room available.
The teaching program of the Department evolved to include a fourth-year elective for medical students, as well as the traditional anesthesiology, surgical and dental resident training. A third-year residency program in cardiothoracic and neurosurgical anesthesia was introduced, and obstetrical anesthesia became its own division. In 1962, the Bernard H. Eliasberg Library was created in the Department. The next year an Eliasberg Memorial Lecture was established. This grew to be a full day symposium in 1971.
Dr. Rendell-Baker's research interest was in pediatric and thoracic anesthesia. He was known around the world for his work on developing standards for anesthesia equipment and for promoting safe sterilization techniques for equipment. Other staff members also did work on aspiration pneumonia, oxygen toxicity, the anesthesia considerations in myasthenia gravis, safety of plastic tubing in equipment as well as safety in the OR itself.
Dr. Rendell-Baker retired in 1979 as Chairman and was succeeded by Dr. David C.C. Stark, the Assistant Director of the Department since 1970. At the time of the transition, there were 44 residents in the Department. Dr. Stark emphasized the importance of basic science research with the creation of the Cell Culture Laboratory in 1980.
Dr. Joel Kaplan was appointed Chairman in 1983. There were 46 residents at the time of his arrival. Dr. Kaplan's research interest was in cardiac anesthesia, long an important area in the Department. In 1986, Dr. Kaplan was named to the newly created Horace W. Goldsmith Chair in Anesthesiology.
The 1980s saw the rise of ambulatory surgery and the need to develop, test and provide anesthetics for short-term procedures that would allow the patient to return home that day in a stable condition. At the same time, computers and automation began to play an increasing role in the Department's service. Databases of anesthetics and outcomes were created and work was begun on creating expert systems in anesthesiology. In 1994, Mount Sinai acquired the first computerized, simulated patient in this area, for teaching and research purposes. 1992 saw the completion of the new Guggenheim Pavilion, with a 22-room surgical suite and 66 specialized intensive care unit beds.
In 1998, Dr. Kaplan left Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Dr. Paul Goldiner was appointed Chairman. In 2004, Dr. David L. Reich was appointed Chair of the Department. Currently, the Department of Anesthesiology has over 150 faculty and housestaff physicians, nearly 20 CRNA’s and additional administrative and technical staff. The Department faculty practice at The Mount Sinai Hospital, The Mount Sinai Hospital of Queens, Elmhurst Hospital Center, Queens Hospital Center, and the James J. Peters (Bronx) Veterans Administration Medical Center. Over 50,000 anesthetics are currently administered annually at the Manhattan campus.
