title: [History and current issues of anesthesia in Korea].
abstract: We report the history and current issues of anesthesia in Korea. Korean medical doctors have to take 1-year internship and 4-year residency to be qualified to take the national examination for a board-certified anesthesiologist. The national examination began in 1963, and there were 3,050 board-certified anesthesiologists as of 2006. The calculated patients who were managed by a board-certified anesthesiologist were 5.8 patients a day. The Korean government adopted nurse-anesthetists in 1973 because of shortage of board-certified anesthesiologists. The Korean Society of Anesthesiologists is now demanding its amendment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, College of Medicine, Dongguk University, Gyeongju, Korea, 780-714.
authors.forename: Mi-Woon
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Yuki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Higa
authors.forename: Kazuo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Higa
mesh_terms: D000776:Anesthesiology / Q000193:education / Q000266:history / Q000639:trends*; D004503:Education, Medical, Graduate; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D007723:Korea; D009719:Nurse Anesthetists