Pioneer Anesthesiologist Dr. Joseph F. Artusio Dies at 94

Joseph F. Artusio Jr., MD, the founding chairman of the department of anesthesiology and anesthesiologist-in-chief at Weill Cornell Medical College and New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, died on Dec. 21 at age 94, according to a Newswise report.

Dr. Artusio spent his entire career at the medical center and was its highest-ranking anesthesiologist for 42 years. He contributed to the field of anesthesia by developing anesthetic techniques for early surgery on the heart and researching non-flammable anesthetic agents. He was also the first to define the sequence of anesthesia and analgesia with di-ethyl in patients undergoing cardiac surgery, which proved to be a forerunner for the light anesthesia produced by narcotics and tranquilizers in modern cardiac surgery.

Dr. Artusio graduated from Saint Peter's College in Jersey City, N.J., in 1939 and received his MD from Cornell University Medical College in 1943. He completed his internship at Bellevue Hospital in 1944 and then served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps for two years before joining The New York Hospital as an anesthesiology resident in 1946.

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