How much do we know about anesthesia?
It is not a new word definitely but how much science behind it do we know?
What is anesthesia?
Anesthesia is a way to control pain during a surgery or procedure by using medicine called anesthetics.
It basically helps you get through a surgical procedure without pain. I feel this is one of the most beneficial inventions of medicine.
Till mid 1800s surgeries were done under the influence of alcohol or narcotics or even literally smacking the patients to unconscious state or mostly done when patient was awake till Dr.William Morton, Doctor at Massachusetts General Hospital, in 1846 used the very first general anesthetic Diethyl-ether.
What does it do actually?
• It relaxes you
• Blocks pain by blocking pain receptors in the brain
• Makes you forgetful, amnesia
• Makes you unconscious for the surgery
Types of administration
• Regional or local anesthetic like lidocaine
• Inhalational or general anesthetic (acts on whole body) like seroflurane and nitrous oxide
• Intravenous (general anesthetic) like propofol and ketamine.
How does it do what it does?
Most widely used general anesthetic is propofol, though anesthesiologists use a combination of drugs depending on various factors.
Brain which is a complex organization of many neurons constantly communicating using a chemical substance called neurotransmitters which are perceived by receptors called GABA on the neurons. Anesthetics act on the GABA receptors cutting its access to neurotransmitters therefore no signals are transmitted in the brain. As a result of this this we do not feel the pain nor do we have the memory of the procedure since the brain goes into a state of drug induced coma.
http://ib-psych.blogspot.com/2013/05/bla-all-about-neurotransmitters.html
Will anesthesia put you to sleep?
Well, you can say that but both sleep and being anesthetized are not doing the same thing to your system. Anesthesia is pharmacologically locking the brain in a certain stage where as sleep is a physiological phenomenon where your brain naturally moves through different sleep cycles.
How important are anesthesiologists during surgery?
They are very important as they play a crucial role before, during and after the surgery.
Every person is different and maintaining the drug dosage for it not to be too less that a person is not completely anesthetized or too much to effect the brain stem and lead to permanent irreversible damage. Releasing anesthesia after the surgery is equally important.
Instrument used to monitor the brain activity in order to determine the dosage and maintaining constant reversible drug induced state of brain is called cerebral-encephalogram.
What we still do not know?
Though we have been using anesthesia regularly during surgeries, we still do not know how exactly it works. Complete science behind it remains mostly unknown owing to the complexity of the brain and since every person is different.
This is a vedio where Dr.Emery Brown talking about the difference between anthesia and sleep
