Before anaesthesia was discovered, what could surgeons offer their patients? Amputation? Setting a broken bone? Operations were rarely carried out - and all were accompanied by unimaginable pain and often resulted in death. Anaesthesia changed surgery forever. Consider what marvels can now be performed on any organ in the body, in the absence of pain and with every expectation of survival. Its discovery altered society, hugely for the better, and yet so little is known or understood about it by most of us. 'Just a Little Scratch' describes some of the who, why, what and how in the development of modern anaesthesia and will answer many of the questions that a patient might wish to ask. How does it work? Will I wake up in the middle of the operation? What does the anaesthetist do during the operation? Is the anaesthetist a doctor? What's the best anaesthetic?.