The creation of anesthesia changed the course of modern medicine, allowing doctors to perform surgeries and other procedures in a way that the patient didn’t feel any pain. Anyone who has had even minor surgery has taken a form of anesthesia. Many people who have been under general anesthesia remember counting backward from 10 and then waking up in a recovery room hours later, with seemingly no time passing between the two moments. While many people have had anesthesia, it can be a bit confusing when trying to understand what happens when “under” it. So, what does anesthesia do, exactly?
What is anesthesia?
Anesthesia is a state that makes a person unable to feel physical sensations and also causes unconsciousness. It was first used to sedate a human patient in 1846, and it opened up the possibility of treating life-threatening conditions with surgery without essentially torturing a patient. Anesthesia started out as general anesthesia that “knocked out” a person completely. However, over time, different types of anesthesia have emerged.
Types of anesthesia
Local anesthesia is used when only a small area needs to be deadened. Examples include Novocain, which is used during dental procedures such as cavity filling or root canals. Local anesthesia also can be used for small surgeries, such as dermatology procedures, or for procedures such as stitching a deep cut. It anesthetizes only a certain area of the body. General anesthesia is used for major surgeries, such as heart surgery, joint replacements, and surgeries designed to remove tumors or other cancerous growths. In simple terms, general anesthesia “knocks out” a person or “puts them under.” It essentially puts a person in a state where they are unconscious and cannot feel any pain or have any memory of the time while under the influence of general anesthesia.
Analgesia vs Anesthesia
General anesthesia puts the body into a state where a person is unconscious and cannot feel any pain. That inability to feel pain is called analgesia, and it is something that happens temporarily while under anesthesia. If a person is under general anesthesia, they are both unconscious and not feeling pain. If a person is under local anesthesia, they are wide awake but cannot feel pain.
During surgery, an anesthesiologist often will use an additional analgesic to help control pain during the surgery and afterward. An analgesic is a drug that relieves pain but does not turn off nerves, make a person unable to understand what’s going on around them, or cause unconsciousness, as general anesthesia does. The more common name for an analgesic is a painkiller or pain reliever, and they are used to relieve pain and inflammation.
A person who has undergone surgery will have had general anesthesia to put them under, but they will also likely be given opioid-based pain medications to ensure they are not feeling pain during the surgery or directly after the surgery. Controlling that pain is an important step for healing and rehabilitation. It is important to understand the possible side effects of an analgesic drug, especially an opioid-based analgesic, which can include diarrhea or constipation, damage to the liver or kidneys, heart problems, nausea, stomach ulcers, and more. Talk with your doctor before taking an opioid-based analgesic because certain behaviors, such as drinking alcohol, can cause serious side effects in combination with opioid based analgesics.
In addition to causing unconsciousness and the inability to feel pain, anesthesia also causes temporary amnesia in a person.
What is amnesia?
Amnesia is when a person loses memories of a specific experience, or fact, or information. It is rarely a situation where a person completely forgets who they are (as Hollywood likes to portray). Rather, amnesia typically means that a person has lost some information and struggles to create new memories. Amnesia is an important part of anesthesia, as patients who have gone under general anesthesia wake up with no memory of the time they were out.
With anesthesia, the amnesia a person experiences is temporary and only applies to forgetting the time the person was not conscious. When the anesthesia is stopped, a person is able to again create new memories and remember what is going on around them.
Written by Sheena McFarland
