Hypnosis has been a part of medicine throughout the centuries. It was found to be an effective method of inducing anesthesia long before the existence of chemical anesthetics. Anesthesia, as well as medicine in general, is a combination of art and science; equally so is hypnosis. In order to use this method of anesthesia more effectively, it is important for the anesthetist to understand that hypnosis is a method or technique, not an anesthetic agent.

Toward the end of the nineteenth century, there was no longer any question as to the reality of hypnosis, and its use in producing analgesia and anesthesia. Historically, natural or hypno-anesthesia preceded chemical anesthesia by approximately twenty-one years.

The first operation using hypno-anesthesia reported in the United States was a nasal polypectomy, performed thirteen years before Crawford Long started using ether as an anesthetic agent. To date, virtually every body cavity has been entered and almost every organ has been operated upon using hypno-anesthesia. Only recently, valid reports of operations performed under hypno-anesthesia made the nightly news.

Hypno-anesthesia should not be considered a replacement for chemical anesthesia. Not all patients can be hypnotized as easily as they can be anesthetized. Nevertheless, hypnosis is a method which can be very useful to the anesthesia clinician before, during, and after a surgical procedure.

An ideal anesthetic combines the use of hypnotic techniques with reduced doses of chemical anesthetic drugs. Propofol, Sodium Thiopental, and Etomidate are classed as hypnotics. These anesthesia induction medications when given slowly in combination with post-hypnotic suggestions greatly enhance patient recovery from both the anesthetic and the operative procedure. The combination of pre surgical hypnosis and chemical hypnosis at the time of anesthesia induction greatly reduces depression of the cardiovascular, pulmonary, renal, and hepatic systems. Medhmet C. Oz, M.D. of Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center routinely offers hypnosis to his open-heart-surgery patients to reduce anxiety before the procedure.

In contrast to chemical anesthesia, hypno-anesthesia has the advantage of being completely safe and harmless to the patient. The disadvantage of using this method is time. In order to use hypnosis as the sole and total means of anesthesia or even as the major portion of the anesthetic procedure, more time is generally required than just the pre-anesthetic visit or phone call. Though it may very well be the method of choice for many patients, it is not often used because most patients are not aware of hypnosis as an alternative or adjunct to their care. Also, medical personnel are not trained in alternatives such as hypnosis, and those trained do not want to spend the time required for conditioning the patient prior to the proposed procedure. The advent of epidural anesthesia for labor and delivery has also had a great impact on patient motivation toward both Lamaze and hypnosis for child birth. If the patient is disinterested the physician follows suit. In addition, the basic induction of hypnosis can require as long as fifteen to thirty minutes.