What is anesthesia?
The word 'anesthesia' means 'loss of sensation'. Today, safe and effective methods of anesthesia allow surgery to be performed on millions of patients each year. You should know a few important things about anesthesia:
- most importantly, it stops you from feeling pain and other sensations during your operation
- it can be given in various ways
- not all anesthesia makes you unconscious
- it can be directed to different parts of the body
Drugs that cause anesthesia work by blocking the signals that pass along your nerves to your brain. When the drugs wear off, you start to feel normal sensations again, including pain. Some of these medications work on your whole body, while some of the medications work directly on the nerves going to parts of your body.
What are the types of anesthesia?
There are basically three types of anesthesia in use today: general anesthesia, regional anesthesia and local anesthesia. In addition, sedation medication may be used before and/or during various forms of anesthesia for your comfort.
General anesthesia is a state of controlled unconsciousness during which you feel nothing and may be described as 'anesthetized'. For some operations, general anesthesia may be the only option for safe care during surgery. In other operations, general anesthesia may be an alternative to regional anesthesia. During general anesthesia, anesthetic medications are injected into a vein, or anesthetic gases may be breathed into the lungs. When these medications are carried to the brain by the blood, they effectively "numb" the brain, and produce unconsciousness. Other medications are given to prevent pain and relax the muscles of the body. During general anesthesia, you may need assistance to support adequate breathing. In this case, you may have a breathing tube placed after you have fallen asleep. General anesthesia produces a period of controlled unconsciousness, which is quite different from sleep, and is also different from unconsciousness due to disease or injury. At the end of surgery, as the anesthetic drugs wear off, your consciousness starts to return.
Regional anesthesia is the specialized use of local anesthetic to numb a part of the body. Regional anesthesia can be used for operations on larger or deeper parts of the body. Local anesthetic drugs are injected near to the bundles of nerves which carry signals from that area of the body to the brain. The most common regional anesthetics (also known as regional 'blocks') are spinal and epidural anesthetics. These can be used for operations on the lower body such as Caesarean sections, bladder operations or replacing a hip joint. You stay conscious but free from pain. Nerve blocks in the neck or armpit area are used to numb the arm or shoulder for surgery.
Local anesthesia numbs a small part of your body. It is used when the nerves can easily be reached by injections, drops, sprays, or ointments. You stay conscious but free from pain.
Sedation is the use of small amounts of anesthetic or similar drugs to produce a 'sleepy-like' state. It makes you physically and mentally relaxed during an investigation or procedure which may be unpleasant or painful (such as an endoscopy) but where your co-operation is needed. You may remember a little about what happened but often you will remember nothing. This is frequently called 'conscious sedation', and may be used by other professionals as well as anesthesia professionals. If you are having a regional or local anesthetic, you may want to ask for some sedation as well. Combining types of anesthesia: anesthetic drugs and techniques are often combined. For example: a regional anesthetic may be given as well as a general anesthetic to provide pain relief after the operation. Sedation is frequently used with either regional or local anesthesia. The anesthetic prevents you from feeling pain, while the sedation makes you feel drowsy and mentally relaxed during the operation.
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