Definition Anaesthesia
Anaesthesia means “loss of sensation”. Medications that cause anaesthesia are called anaesthetics. Anaesthetics are used for pain relief during tests or surgical operations so that you do not feel any of the following:
- pain
- touch
- pressure
- temperature
How do anaesthetics work?
Anaesthetics work by blocking the signals that pass along your nerves to your brain.
Your nerves are bundles of fibres that use chemical and electrical signals to pass information around your body. If you cut your finger, the pain signal travels from your finger to your brain through your nerves. When the signal reaches your brain, you realise that your finger hurts.
Anaesthetics stop the nerve signals reaching your brain, allowing procedures to be carried out without you feeling anything. When the anaesthetic wears off, the signals will work again and your sensation will come back.
Types of anaesthesia
Related posts
Anaesthesia And Its 10 Steps To Creating It
There was a superb television delight on here in the UK entitled ‘Hypno-Surgery’ recently and it showed a man receiving hypno-surgery. That is, he had a hernia operation without any anaesthesia other than by using hypnosis.
Of course, it is a sensation because it is on television, however, these have been done for years. There are lots of filmed studies and masses of research that has been done using hypnosis alone when performing surgery.
Many ways have been used to alleviate pain over the years and I have experienced many myself and found hypnosis accompanied with a range of mind skills and tools to be by far the best way of overcoming and altering my response to it.
Can you remember a time when you had a paper cut and you did not realise that you had it until later on that day when you saw it with your own eyes? It was not until you saw it that it hurt and thought “oooh that smarts a bit.” This is naturally occurring anaesthesia, the capacity which exists within us all. Read the rest of this entry »
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Anaesthesia Errors and Why They Occur
We often perceive that the most dangerous stage of surgery is the procedure itself. Many of us who undergo surgery fear the process. More often than not, we do not realize that sometimes the anaesthesia used during the operation is the hazardous stage of the process. It has been observed that anaesthesia errors or mistakes in its administration take place in a lot of our hospital operating rooms, a horrible truth that most of us do not have knowledge of until it takes the life of a friend or a loved one.
On the other hand, the use of anaesthesia is very significant as its introduction in the medical world has made life saving surgeries possible. Today, surgery is next to impossible if surgeons do not use this medical wonder. Further, people prefer anaesthesia to alleviate the pain of undergoing surgery.
Be that as it may, anaesthesia errors or mistakes still happen. But why do anaesthesia errors occur? Let us see the top three reasons why these happen.
First reason is poor communication between staff members in the hospital. This poor communication could be ascribed to personal conflicts, faulty procedures of technicians in dealing with anaesthesia and even fatigue. Oftentimes, errors in documenting the patient’s age and weight, medical history and past reactions to anaesthesia result in anaesthesia error. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: anaesthesia, type of anaesthesia