Anesthesia Anesthesia Traditionally meant the condition of

Anesthesia

Anesthesia. Traditionally meant the condition of having sensation (including the feeling of pain) blocked or temporarily taken away. It is a pharmacologically induced and reversible state ofamnesia, analgesia, loss of responsiveness, loss of skeletal muscle reflexes, decreased stress response, or all of these simultaneously.

Anesthesia. These effects can be obtained from a single drug which alone provides the correct combination of effects, or occasionally a combination of drugs (such as hypnotics, sedatives, paralytics and analgesics) to achieve very specific combinations of results. This allows patients to undergo surgery and other procedures without the distress and pain they would otherwise experience. An alternative definition is a "reversible lack of awareness, " including a total lack of awareness (e. g. a general anesthetic) or a lack of awareness of a part of the body such as a spinal anesthetic. The pre-existing word anesthesia was suggested by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. in 1846 as a word to use to describe this state.

Types of anesthesia: Local anasthesia. General anasthesia. Regional anasthesia. Dissociative anasthesia.

Local anesthesia. Is any technique to induce the absence of sensation in part of the body, generally for the aim of inducing local analgesia, that is, local insensitivity to pain, although other local senses may be affected as well. It allows patients to undergo surgical and dental procedures with reduced pain and distress. In many situations, such as cesarean section, it is safer and therefore superior to general anesthesia. It is also used for relief of non -surgical pain and to enable diagnosis of the cause of some chronic pain conditions. Anesthetists sometimes combine both general and local anesthesia techniques.

General anaesthesia. Is a medically induced coma and loss of protective reflexes resulting from the administration of one or more general anaesthetic agents. A variety of medications may be administered, with the overall aim of ensuring sleep, amnesia, analgesia, relaxation of skeletal muscles, and loss of control of reflexes of the autonomic nervous system. The optimal combination of these agents for any given patient and procedure is typically selected by an anaesthesiologist or another provider such as an anaesthesiologist assistant or nurse anaesthetist, in consultation with the patient and the medical or dental practitioner performing the operative procedure.

Regional anaesthesia. Is anaesthesia affecting a large part of the body, such as a limb or the lower half of the body. Regional anaesthetic techniques can be divided into central and peripheral techniques.

Dissociative anasthesia. Class of hallucinogen, which distort perceptions of sight and sound and produce feelings of detachment - dissociation - from the environment and self. This is done through reducing or blocking signals to the conscious mind from other parts of the brain. [1]Although many kinds of drugs are capable of such action, dissociatives are unique in that they do so in such a way that they produce hallucinogenic effects, which may include sensory deprivation, dissociation, hallucinations, and dream-like states or trances. Some, which are nonselective in action and affect the dopamine or opioid systems, may be capable of inducing euphoria.

Example of local anesthesia:

Example of general anaesthesia

Example of regional anaesthesia.

Allergic reactions to anaesthesia The incidence of life-threatening hypersensitivity reactions occurring during surgery and anaesthesia is around one in 10, 000 procedures. Serious allergic reactions to anesthetic medications are rare and a usually attributable to factors other than the anesthetic. Neuromuscular blocking agents, natural rubber latex, and antibiotics are the most common causes of serious allergic reactions during surgery. The mortality rate from these reactions is about 3– 6%. Successful immediate treatment requires prompt recognition by the attending anaesthetist, or in the US, the attending anesthesiologist or nurse anesthetist. Adrenaline (epinephrine) remains the mainstay of treatment, with corticosteroids and antihistamines providing limited benefit in the acute situation. Subsequent investigation aims to determine the responsible agent to allow its future avoidance. Skin testing is often useful to identify potentially cross-reactive compounds and appropriate therapeutic alternatives. This is done weeks after the initial reaction to allow the immune system to reset itself. However, skin testing can be misleading in giving false positive and false negative results.

Thank you for attention!