What is anesthesia??

 

What is anesthesia?

Since when are we using anesthesia?

What do anesthetists do to make us sleep?

What function do these medications do?

Is anesthesia only making us sleep or does it do any other functions?

Have u ever undergone any kind of surgery in which the doctor sedated you?

There are many people who have surgeries done because of various reasons. Many of those surgeries are painful and if it were to be done when we are in our natural senses we would not be able to survive the pain, sight, and even the feeling of the surgery.

To prevent all of that people began using anesthesia. The surgeon could better have access to the patient. The patient would not feel the pain of him or her being cut open and would not see the organs and blood if not a fan of those kinds of scenarios.

History

Anesthesia has been going on along with surgery for centuries. The initial forms of anesthesia were basically derived from natural sources. those were plants like cannabis, mandrake, and also opium poppy. There were other methods too to control surgical pain like cold nerve compression, and carotid artery occlusion.

In 1842 the first time surgery was done under modern anesthesia which composed of inhalation of ether and publically it was done in 1846. 1846 marks the start of the modern era of anesthesia.

What does anesthesia do?

Anesthesia basically helps us achieve 5 states in the body-

a)       Amnesia- the patient does not remember the memory of the surgery.

b)      Analgesia- the patient does not feel pain

c)       Unconsciousness- the patient is asleep and does not react to any kind of stimuli

d)      Inhibition of autonomic reflexes- the autonomic nerves do not react to the stimuli

e)      Relaxation of the smooth muscles- the smooth muscles of the body relax

These are the 5 basic things that we achieve when a person is under general anesthesia.

These 5 things cannot be achieved with the use of a single drug and thus there are a combination of drugs required to achieve all these 5 states in case of general anesthesia.

An ideal anesthetic drug should also induce rapid, smooth loss of consciousness, be rapidly reversible upon discontinuation and possess a wide margin of safety.

A brief information on how anesthesia is given

The use of anesthesia is done by the administration of different types of drugs via different methods like inhalation and IV administration.

The procedure is often called the balanced anesthesia techniques and it often involves the use of the advantage of the favorable properties of the drug and minimizing the adverse effects.

Does every kind of surgery require the same amount of anesthesia?

The type, quantity, and the amount of anesthesia depend on the type of procedure that is happening.

If the patient is having a very minimally invasive procedure and only needs to be sedated locally then there is no need to go through all the general anesthesia procedure.

Instead, they are given what is called monitored anesthesia care is given in which the patient is given oral sedatives with local anesthesia. This type of anesthesia allows the patient to breathe and keep the airway open with being able to respond to verbal commands. The use of local anesthetic provides profound analgesia so that the patient does not feel any pain.

If the surgery is more invasive and the person needs to go through general anesthesia.

For more invasive surgical procedures, anesthesia may begin with a preoperative benzodiazepine, be induced with an intravenous agent (eg, thiopental or propofol), and be maintained with a combination of inhaled (eg, volatile agents, nitrous oxide) and/or intravenous drugs (eg, propofol, opioid analgesics).

Conclusion

 It was a brief introduction of the anesthesia introduction and there will be more on this topic.

Stay safe healthy and informed