What does the future of anesthesia look like?

Although the basic process of anesthesia for most surgeries will likely remain the same: put the patient to sleep before the surgery and wake them up after the surgery, there are still several areas of active growth in the anesthesia field. One of these areas is the ability to identify regions of the body to anesthetize with local anesthetic. The ability to numb and immobilize a region of the body (e.g., the foot) that the surgeon will operate on allows for better post-operative pain control and potentially allows minimizing systemic analgesic and sedation drugs and their toxicities.