Causes of death among anesthesiologists: 1930-1946

The causes of death among anesthesiologists from 1930 through 1946 were determined and compared to the causes of death for contemporaneous physicians as well as anesthesiologists in later eras. Names of US white male anesthesiologists listed in the annual Directories of Anesthetists compiled by the International Anesthesia Research Society were searched for in the death files of the American Medical Association. Among those listed in the Directories 274 deaths were located. Causes were ascertained for 269 deaths and 259 causes were verified from death certificates. The leading causes of death of anesthesiologists and other physicians of the same era were cardiovascular-renal diseases and malignant neoplasms. The death rate from all causes was lower among anesthesiologists than among contemporaneous white men and other physicians. Death rates among anesthesiologists from 1930-1946 were similar to those among anesthesiologists in 1947-1956, but greater than those for 1957-1971. Among deaths from malignant neoplasms, those of the digestive organs were the most frequent and those of the respiratory tract the least. Anesthesiologists practicing in the earlier part of this century had lower death rates and they were less likely to die of malignant neoplasms than contemporaneous white men. The death rates for these anesthesiologists were similar to those for anesthesiologists during 1947-1956, but greater than rates observed for anesthesiologists during 1957-1971. This suggests that exposure to the fluorinated anesthetic agents introduced in the mid-1950s may not be an important health hazard.