What is anesthesia?

What Does anesthesia Mean

In the Greek, and more specifically in the word anesthesia is where we find the etymological origin of the current term anesthesia. Specifically, it is made up of three differentiated parts: the prefix an which means “without”; the concept aesthesis which can be translated as "sensation" and the suffix ia.

The anesthesia is the absence, either total or partial sensitivity . It can be caused by trauma or artificially and induced . The term, in general, is used to refer to the medical action that consists of inhibiting pain in a patient by supplying a substance with anesthetic properties.
The branch of medicine that is responsible for caring for and caring for people in the framework of a surgical operation is known as anesthesiology . This specialty, however, can also deal with relieving pain that comes from non-surgical reasons, such as the supply of anesthetic substances to the mother during delivery.

Based on all of this, we can establish that the professional in charge of carrying out this task is the one who receives the name of anesthesiologist. This, in particular, is the doctor responsible for the well-being of the patient both before, during and after the surgical intervention to which they are going to undergo. Hence, ensure the safety and comfort of that.
General anesthesia is known as that which affects consciousness, produces the emergence of temporary amnesia and eliminates reflexes. The substance supplied has hypnotic properties and can be applied in different ways (through inhalations, intravenous needles, etc.).
The local anesthetic , however, only blocks pain in a particular area of the body . Its effects mean that the electrical impulses of the muscles and nerves are not transmitted normally for a transitory period. An example of local anesthesia is one used when teeth must be extracted from the patient.
Another type of anesthesia is locoregional anesthesia , which cancels the sensitivity in one or more limbs. This is the case with epidural anesthesia (also known as epidural anesthesia ), which consists of introducing a local anesthetic into the so-called epidural space. This substance acts on the nerve endings when they leave the medulla.
The spinal anesthesia or spinal anesthesia , meanwhile, applies in the intradural space and takes effect more quickly when compared with epidural .
When determining the type of anesthesia that will be administered to a specific patient before a surgical operation or test of different types, the medical personnel who will undertake it must take into account a series of very important factors. Among them are the type of intervention, the part of the body in which it will be performed, the duration of the same, the diseases that the person has suffered or suffers and the history of reactions to anesthesia.

And all this without forgetting that, in the same way, other values ​​of equal importance will be taken into account, such as the drugs that the patient is taking at that time or the conditions of the same with respect to age, weight and height. .