Anesthesia in disaster medicine, especially as practiced in developing countries, is fundamentally different from the anesthesia that is practiced during normal situations. Anesthetic procedures suitable for disaster situations must often take place under minimal conditions of instrumental availability and in a setting of less than modern technology. Such conditions, of course, limit the use of inhalatory anesthetics.

The key factor present in disaster situations is the disturbed relationship between the number of injured, on the one hand, and the available resources to treat them, on the other. This includes medical personnel—both professional and para-professional. This has been substantiated by the earthquakes in Iran, Guatemala, China and Turkey. The earthquake which occurred in Tabas, Iran in December 1978, for example, lasted only thirty seconds, but left behind more than 20,000 dead and countless thousands of injured.