BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the historical anesthetic trends for last 35 years at Chonnam National University Hospital (CNUH). METHODS: The anesthetic records of total 101,637 anesthetic cases performed at CNUH from January 1961 to December 1996 were reviewed and analyzed according to age, sex, department, operation site, physical status, preoperative findings, anesthetic methods and agents, duration of operation, etc. RESULTS: Annual anesthetic cases was increased remarkably year by year; annual surgical patients increased 19 times for 35 years. The ratio of male to female was 1.18:1. The percent of geriatric anesthesia was increased year by year. In preoperative physical status from ASA definitions, 83.6 % of total patients was assigned class I and II. The average departmental distributions in descending order were surgery, orthopedic surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, neurosurgery, urology, ENT, thoracic surgery, ophthalmology, plastic surgery, oral and maxillofacial surgery, and others. The distributions of operation site in descending order were lower abdomen, neck, upper abdomen, lower extremities, head, chest, spine, upper extremities, and breast. Inhalational anesthesia was the most frequent used methods. Ether was abandoned from 1983, and major volatile anesthetics was halothane from 1981 to 1991. The use of enflurane has steadily increased and isoflurane has also been used with increasing frequency since 1992. CONCLUSIONS: Anesthetic cases are markedly increased year by year, and major volatile anesthetics and neuromuscular blocker were changed from halothane to enflurane and from pancuronium to vecuronium, respectively.