Their training includes four years of anesthesiology residency, as well as additional fellowship training in certain subspecialties. You can have anesthetic drugs through injection, inhalation, topical lotion, spray, eye drops or skin patches.
Young children can inhale anesthesia through a mask or tube, getting an IV after becoming unconscious. To make the best decision, your doctors will want to know your:. Better monitoring technology and improved anesthetic drugs make general anesthesia safe for healthy patients. You'll have an increased risk from surgery and anesthesia if you have significant health conditions, such as heart or kidney problems. Your surgeon and anesthesia team will perform a thorough medical history and physical exam before surgery to assess your risk.
This is called aspiration — when your body breathes vomit. This situation can be life-threatening. General anesthesia prevents your body from moving while you're unconscious.
Still, it's possible for your body to move a little. Since even small movements can be dangerous for some surgeries, in those cases, you'll also get a muscle relaxer. Sometimes people have an allergic reaction to anesthetic drugs. Symptoms are similar to any other allergic reaction. The anaesthetist can answer any questions you have. Let them know if you're unsure about any part of the procedure or if you have any concerns.
You should be given clear instructions to follow before the operation, including whether you can eat or drink anything in the hours leading up to it. Just before you have surgery, you'll usually be taken to a room where your anaesthetist will give you the general anaesthetic. The anaesthetic should take effect very quickly. You'll start feeling lightheaded, before becoming unconscious within a minute or so.
The anaesthetist will stay with you throughout the procedure. They'll make sure you continue to receive the anaesthetic and that you stay in a controlled state of unconsciousness. They'll also give you painkilling medicine into your veins, so that you're comfortable when you wake up. After your operation, the anaesthetist will stop the anaesthetic and you'll gradually wake up.
You'll usually be in a recovery room at first, before being transferred to a ward. Depending on your circumstances, you'll usually need to stay in hospital for a few hours to a few days after your operation. Other researchers are searching for genes that may affect how anesthetic drugs are processed, or metabolized, by the body. Genetic differences might affect the proper dosage or the selection of drugs for each patient.
Nash and his colleagues have found that studies of the common fruit fly may offer clues to how genes affect anesthesia. Copy number variations are known to affect human responses to other drugs.
Nash suspects that these gene segments may also affect how patients react to anesthesia. After surgery, when anesthesia wears off, you may feel some pain and discomfort. How quickly you recover will depend on the medications you received and other factors like your age. Right now, the best cure for these side effects is time.
Brown and his colleagues are working to develop drugs to help patients more quickly emerge and recover from general anesthesia. Anesthesia is generally considered quite safe for most patients. By some estimates, the death rate from general anesthesia is about 1 in , patients. Side effects have become less common and are usually not as serious as they once were. If you have concerns, talk with your doctor. It might help to meet in advance with the person who will give you anesthesia.
Ask what kind of anesthesia you will have. Other forms of anesthesia, such as light sedation combined with local anesthesia for a small area or regional anesthesia for a larger part of your body , may not be appropriate for more involved procedures.
General anesthesia is overall very safe; most people, even those with significant health conditions, are able to undergo general anesthesia itself without serious problems. In fact, your risk of complications is more closely related to the type of procedure you're undergoing and your general physical health, rather than to the type of anesthesia.
Older adults, or those with serious medical problems, particularly those undergoing more extensive procedures, may be at increased risk of postoperative confusion, pneumonia, or even stroke and heart attack. Specific conditions that can increase your risk of complications during surgery include:. Estimates vary, but about 1 or 2 people in every 1, may be partially awake during general anesthesia and experience what is called unintended intraoperative awareness.
It is even rarer to experience pain, but this can occur as well. Because of the muscle relaxants given before surgery, people are unable to move or speak to let doctors know that they are awake or experiencing pain. For some patients, this may cause long-term psychological problems, similar to post-traumatic stress disorder.
This phenomenon is so rare that it's difficult to make clear connections. Some factors that may be involved include:. General anesthesia relaxes the muscles in your digestive tract and airway that keep food and acid from passing from your stomach into your lungs. Always follow your doctor's instructions about avoiding food and drink before surgery. Fasting is usually necessary starting about six hours before your surgery.
You may be able to drink clear fluids until a few hours prior. Your doctor may tell you to take some of your regular medications with a small sip of water during your fasting time. Discuss your medications with your doctor.
You may need to avoid some medications, such as aspirin and some other over-the-counter blood thinners, for at least a week before your procedure. These medications may cause complications during surgery. Some vitamins and herbal remedies, such as ginseng, garlic, Ginkgo biloba, St.
John's wort, kava and others, may cause complications during surgery. Discuss the types of dietary supplements you take with your doctor before your surgery. If you have diabetes, talk with your doctor about any changes to your medications during the fasting period.
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