6
votes
Why is it necessary to fast before a procedure involving anesthesia?
The purpose of fasting before a procedure involving anesthesia is to avoid aspiration of stomach contents, not anything related to drug efficacy. Your anesthesiologist/physician/dentist/nurse wants ...
- 11.7k
6
votes
How common is it for local anesthesia to have no effect?
This depends on the type of anesthetic used, there are plenty:
Types of anesthetic
which include:
Esters (Benzocaine, Cyclomethycaine, Propoxycaine)
Amides (Bupivacaine, Mepivacaine, Trimecaine)
...
- 1,513
5
votes
Accepted
Can anesthesia cause addiction?
Addiction has both psychological and physical components.
Many sedatives, such as benzodiazepines (e.g. lorazepam or diazepam), do have a potential for both.
Physically, it takes more than one ...
- 5,693
5
votes
Accepted
Is there an interaction between methamphetamine and dental anesthetic?
Catecholamines
This interaction relates to a broad family of hormones called catecholamines. There are many examples and they share a common structure.
Dopamine
Adrenaline (epinephrine)
Notice the ...
- 2,331
4
votes
How common is it for local anesthesia to have no effect?
In addition to JonMark Perry's excellent answer it's also worth noting that many of us aren't wired the same as everyone one else.
When your dentist tries to numb a particular tooth, he or she is ...
- 1,360
3
votes
Accepted
How common is Anaesthesia Awareness?
Previous estimates were at 1 in a 1000 patients (1‰) suffer from intraoperative awareness:
The medical literature suggests that in- traoperative awareness with recall while under general anesthesia ...
- 6,480
3
votes
For how long drowsiness and intoxication last with Tramadol 50mg
Side-effects of medicines (such as drowsiness with tramadol) should be reported to and managed by the patient's healthcare team - in the best case by the doctor who prescribed the medicine, but you ...
- 2,803
3
votes
Accepted
What stages of REM sleep occur in medically induced sleep?
Sleep and general anaesthesia share a few similarities, but also have differences. From what I have read, they are sufficiently different that comparing anaesthesia to a certain sleep phase doesn't ...
- 6,998
3
votes
What are the downsides of hypnosurgery (vs. using traditional anaesthetics)?
Tefikow, S., J. Barth, S. Maichrowitz, A. Beelmann, B. Strauss, and J. Rosendahl. "Efficacy of Hypnosis in Adults Undergoing Surgery or Medical Procedures: A Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled ...
- 565
2
votes
How often is it safe to get general anaesthetic?
I did some article browsing and here's what I found:
Almost all of the articles I came across discussed the affect of general anesthesia on certain nerve tissues, ion channels, and receptors. I could ...
- 565
2
votes
Anaesthesia and sleep
You're right that sleep and general anesthesia are very different, and general anesthesia in fact actively inhibits the glymphatic circulation that clears waste products from the brain). Since most ...
- 345
2
votes
Reducing trauma from surgery prohibiting sedation
Amnesia is very important in anesthesiology
Indeed, this is a concern in the anesthesiology community as well. I recall a friend and former colleague of mine was involved in a project including this ...
- 11.7k
2
votes
Accepted
Why is it called Conscious Sedation?
The definitions of conscious sedation and procedural sedation certainly blend through one another, but typically "conscious sedation" means the patient appears conscious to the provider or bystander, ...
- 56
2
votes
Topical local anesthesia affecting the brain
Local anesthetics like lidocaine work by blocking voltage-gated sodium channels; these channels are the biological basis of action potentials and therefore neurotransmission. Exposure to any typical ...
- 11.7k
1
vote
Accepted
What is the essential difference between a general numbing agent or a general anesthetic to a general analgesic?
The only one of those categories that should get the "general" modifier is anesthetic - this is to contrast them with local anesthetics, which are the "numbing agents" you describe.
General ...
- 11.7k
1
vote
What is injected into the IV to wake a patient up from general anesthesia?
I do know that something can be injected into a patient's IV to wake them up immediately from general anaesthesia.
That's not how it works.
Many anaesthetics only work for minutes at best. A normal ...
- 6,480
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible