Anesthesia
Modern anesthesia began to make its way as a medical topic in the 1840s when ether gas and nitrous oxide (or: nitrogen dioxide, also known as "laughing gas") began to be used in the United States of America for the purpose of anesthesia during surgical procedures. Throughout human history, there have been many attempts to relieve pain through the use of some plants (such as opium) or some chemicals (such as alcohol). These methods were not enough to overcome the severe pain during complex surgeries, which caused great suffering to patients. Since the second half of the 19th century, and until today, the need for anesthesia and its use has increased and expanded. The development achieved in the field of new methods and drugs in the field of anesthesia, in addition to the development in the theory of contamination, in the 19th century, constituted one of the most important foundations in modern surgery.
Several types of anesthesia can be distinguished
General anesthesia (or: general anesthesia): The patient is asleep, does not feel pain stimuli, and his muscles are relaxed.
Regional anesthesia: the patient loses sensation in a specific area of his body, and his muscles in that area are relaxed. The well-known and most widespread form of this type is the epidural anesthesia, which is spread only in the lower part of the body.
Local anesthesia: By injecting a local anesthetic, a small part of the body is numbed, the area in which the operation is performed.
General anesthesia can be achieved by inhaling anesthetic gases or injecting anesthetics into a vein, which have multiple effects, including: anti-pain, sleep-inducing, muscle-relaxant, and others.
Children are usually sedated with anesthetic gases through a mask (induce sleep), while adults are usually sedated by intravenous anesthetic. To ensure the continuity of anesthesia, the two methods mentioned can be combined, meaning that drugs can be added intravenously and/or continued administration of anesthetic gases.
When performing simple operations that do not cause severe and strong pain, but can provoke a kind of distress and discomfort and / or require the patient not to move during them, such as medical imaging examinations for children, bronchoscopy, gastroscopy and the like, the method is used It is called sedation or nebulization of the senses. Sensory nebulization can be classified into two levels, according to its depth and intensity: superficial nebulization - in which the patient awakens easily when called or touched, and deep nebulization - in which the patient can be awakened only after very strong stimulation.
Today, anesthesia is not limited to preventing pain, or controlling its severity, only during surgery. The anesthesiologist prepares the patient for the operation, advises the necessary examinations and builds an integrated preparatory program that includes giving certain medications or stopping them before the operation, in an effort to prepare the patient for the operation in the most efficient and least disturbing way. During the surgical procedure, the anesthesiologist also undertakes, in addition to relieving the pain, the task of providing the patient''s body with oxygen, monitoring the breathing and blood circulation process, as well as other basic functions in the body.
The anesthesia does not end even after the operation, not even after the patient awakens. The anesthesiologist continues to care for the patient until his condition is stable in the operating room, and then in the recovery room or the intensive care unit. Even after the patient is transferred to the appropriate department, the pain can be continued - if it remains - with a pump that injects anti-pain drugs, by monitoring the patient himself according to the instructions of the anesthesiologist.
During anesthesia, the autonomy of the body is limited: in a state of complete unconsciousness, the patient cannot control voluntary functions. Not only that, but even in some involuntary jobs, serious changes may occur. One of the most important and first functions affected by anesthesia - the breathing apparatus responsible for supplying the body with oxygen, which calls for providing respiratory assistance by giving oxygen by artificial respiration with the help of a respirator/anaesthesia device, or by manual breathing performed by the anesthesiologist. All of these procedures are performed while keeping the air ducts open. Also, during anesthesia, the independent work of the heart and blood vessels is stopped, and their work is regulated by injecting medical fluids into the vein and giving medicines that have an effect on the heart and blood vessels, helping to supply the various tissues of the body with blood, on a regular basis.
Throughout the entire procedure, the patient is under close and complete control by means of advanced technologies that monitor the changes taking place in the body.
Since the treatment of a patient under anesthesia constitutes, in practice, a state of intensive care (or: Intensive care), a special branch has developed in the field of anesthesia called "Intensive Care" that aims to support the various systems of the body in critical cases.
In the context of the treatment of pain, and as an essential part of the field of anesthesia, a field of treatment of chronic pain has also been developed, which includes relieving pain in different areas of the body, resulting from damage to the nerves, as a result of malignant diseases or others. Within the framework of this type of treatment, it is of great importance to influence either the body as a whole, or the location and source of pain, or the nerves that transmit pain stimulation to the brain, which is the place where the sensation of pain crystallizes. As part of this treatment, the patient is given medications by mouth or by continuous injection into a vein, or next to the spine. Sometimes a specific concentrate is injected next to certain nerves and next to neuroplexus. Nerve stimulation is done by physical means in order to prevent the transmission of pain stimulation and in order to speed up healing.
The future of the anesthesia profession lies in strengthening the means of protecting the patient and ensuring his safety, as it was in the past as well.
