Pain Management and Anesthesia
Types of Anaesthetics
If you are required to undergo any surgery, your surgeon will first inject you with a drug called ‘Anaesthetic’. Anaesthetics help you prevent pain during any of the surgical procedures. The healthcare industry uses the four main types of anesthetics as follows:- Local anesthesia
- Intravenous or Conscious (IV) sedation
- Regional anesthesia
- General anesthesia
FAQs
Anesthesiologists handle any kind of contingencies during the surgery. An anesthesiologist is responsible to take care of you during the surgery and till the time you regain consciousness after surgery.
Physician anesthesiologists specialize in anesthesia, pain management, and critical care medicine.
Every patient is unique and might be having pre-existing medical conditions. Identifying such conditions can help us better choose the best path for pain management before and during the surgery.
General anesthesia puts you in a sleep-like state. It makes you unconscious and hence you do not feel pain under general anesthesia.
Yes! An anesthesiologist has to stay with the patient till the time the surgery is completed and even after completing the surgery, the doctor stays till you fully regain your senses.
Anesthesia makes you feel sleepy and relaxed. The muscles of your stomach and throat also relax, which can cause food to back up and get into your lungs while you’re out. An empty stomach helps prevent this. That is the reason why you are not allowed to eat before anesthesia.
Most people are awake in the recovery room immediately after an operation but remain groggy for a few hours afterward. Your body will take up to a week to completely eliminate the medicines from your system but most people will not notice much effect after about 24 hours.
Painkillers are available OTC but taking them for a long time can affect your health badly and damage the vital organs.
There is a difference between pain and pressure. When you are under anesthesia, you can feel the pressure but not the pain.
General anesthesia sends nerve signals to your brain and body. It prevents your brain from processing pain and from remembering what happened during your surgery. Pain cannot be avoided, it is just that you are unable to feel it.
The risk of dying in the operating theatre under anesthetic is negligible. According to a statistical report, around 1 person may die for every 100,000 general anesthetics given.
The five most common types of pain are:
- Acute pain.
- Chronic pain.
- Neuropathic pain.
- Nociceptive pain.
- Radicular pain.
Propofol (Diprivan®) is the most commonly used IV general anesthetic. In lower doses, it induces sleep while allowing a patient to continue breathing on their own. It is often utilized by an anesthesiologist for sedation in addition to anxiolytics and analgesics.
- feeling or being sick.
- dizziness and feeling faint.
- feeling cold or shivering.
- headaches.
- itchiness.
- bruising and soreness.
- difficulty peeing.
- aches and pains.
Signs that you may have had a bad reaction to the anesthesia, include Confusion. Aspiration/pneumonia. Difficulty in urinating.
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