This program enters the operating theater with eyes wide open to observe how "fast and dirty" surgery - inexpressibly brutal in the time before anesthesia - led to 19th-century breakthroughs in the area of pain management. Reviews the trial-and-error research behind anesthetic substances ranging form chloroform and nitrous oxide to cocaine and ketamine.--container.

See also DVD format. Originally released in 2003 by BBC Worldwide.