Science helps make our lives easier and more comfortable and in so many ways the various scientific advancements helps to ensure we live healthy happy lives. Pharmaceutical sciences have come a long way and everyday researches have been carried out to deal with a lot of health issues, this improves quality of life and life expectancy.
These days there are drugs that help in the treatment of diseases, drugs meant for prevention of illness, drugs meant to make our bodies stronger and healthier and also drugs for alleviation of pain, needless to say science is a divine gift. One very effective drug that is priceless to medicine and for the performing of surgery is an anesthesia, without it the pain from minor and major surgeries will be unbearable and possibly fatal.
What is an Anesthesia?
Anesthesia is medicine used during surgeries or medical procedures to prevent the feeling of pain and other sensations. Anesthesia is administered to patients either as injection or to be inhaled as gas. Anesthesia is usually administered by specialized doctors or nurses called anesthesiologist.
This specialized anesthesiologist doesn’t just administer the drug before surgery they have other roles they perform to ensure that it is effective and make sure the patient is good condition before, during and after the surgery, the anesthesiologist will;
- Prep the patient for the surgery and make sure he/she is comfortable.
- They monitor the patient’s vitals like breathing, heart rate and heart rhythm, blood pressure, body temperature during the surgery.
- They make sure oxygen levels are kept normal by injecting local anesthesia to relax the throat muscle so that pain isn’t felt when the pipe delivering oxygen is inserted into the throat.
- They are on hand to handle that might arise during the surgery.
- They make sure the patient recovers properly from the effects of the anesthesia after surgery and make sure that they are as comfortable as possible.
Types of Anesthesia
An anesthetic is either given as an injection or as gas as already explained. But they are 2 types and they are categorized based on how they work and potency;
- General Anesthesia: This works by interrupting communications between the central nervous system and the brain to make the patient unconscious. It is given through the circulatory system by combining use of injection and inhaled gas.
- Local Anesthesia (LA): This type of anesthesia has short time effect and is given to temporarily stop the pain in a localized area of the body and the patient is left conscious. It is administered by injecting the exact area. It is used for minor surgeries, if you have been to the dentist to have a tooth removed then you were most likely injected with a local anesthetic.
- Regional Anesthesia: This involves the injecting of the anesthesia around major nerves to stop pain within a larger area of the body. It includes; Spinal which numbs the lower body, Nerve blocks, Epidural anesthesia which helps to reduce the pain felt during childbirth.
How do they work?
Although anesthesia has been used for many years the exact science of how it works isn’t really known. But they basically work by interrupting the brain’s neural pathways so that pain isn’t felt.
They block the nerves connecting a particular part of the body to the brain, which prevents the nerves from transmitting pain in form of electrical signals to the brain. Anesthesia also induces amnesia so that patients don’t suffer trauma from remembering what occurred during the surgery. For major surgeries the patient is injected with anesthesia to put them under and then gassed to ensure they do not come out of the unconscious state.
Side effects of Anesthesia
Like most medicines anesthesia has its own side effects and they vary from one patient to another, in the sense that some people face a few side effects while others experience all of it. They include; temporary disorientation and amnesia, some nauseous feeling and they throw up, maybe some difficulty when they urinate. When the anesthesia wears off after a surgery patients tend to feel a lot of pain, so doctors give them prescription for pain killer drugs they should take for the pain or if the hospital or doctors offer in office dispensing they can go ahead and give them the drugs and write down the prescription and directions for use directly.
Lifestyle and Health habits can affect the use of Anesthesia
There are various reasons why people should lead healthy day to day lifestyles, asides from increasing one’s life expectancy but certain habits like smoking and alcoholism affects the effectiveness of anesthesia. It has been found that people that smoke are given larger doses of anesthesia as non-smokers and might experience more side effects after the surgery. Research shows that women that are smokers require 33% more anesthesia than women that don’t smoke, this is why the anesthesiologist could ask you if you smoke before the procedure. Also being overweight or obese posses its own set of challenges to the anesthesiologist because it is makes it harder to determine the required dosage and administer the drug intravenously. There could be some complications during surgery like breathing problems; it is advisable to lose weight before a surgery so that you could play your own part to ensuring a successful surgery.
Anesthesia-related risks
Just like everything in life anesthesia administration has its own risks, and information about this risk might be significant to you if you have the following conditions; diabetes, allergies to anesthesia, high blood pressure, heart disease, seizures, respiratory conditions among others. There are 0.4/100,000 anesthesia-related deaths at this present time, a higher mortality rate is recorded for patients with severe illnesses and older people undergoing surgeries. This low mortality rate is owing to advancements in the field and improved safety standards, so yes there are few numbers of death and though there shouldn’t be any anesthesia related deaths the number is not so significant and therefore anesthesia administration for the purpose of surgery is very safe. Endeavor to be speak to your doctor and Anesthesiologist honestly before undergoing surgery, this reduces your risk level and ensures you have a safe procedure.
Jabbar Sharif is the creator of many high-end quality resources on internet marketing, shipping and logistics and some medical related topics. He loves sports; especially football. He enjoys reading, but his passion is writing and he loves to do so.
