Table of contents:
- Understand the various types of anesthetics used before surgery
- 1. General (general) anesthesia
- 2. Regional anesthetic
- 3. Local anesthetics
- Is the patient always given an anesthetic before surgery?
- The medical condition determines the type of anesthetic used
Giving anesthesia or anesthesia generally has a specific purpose. For those of you who have never and are about to undergo an operation, there may be a variety of things in your mind. One of them, regarding the possibility of using drugs before the operation process takes place. So, are all operations always given an anesthetic first? Find out the answer in this review, yes!
Understand the various types of anesthetics used before surgery
Some time before the doctor and medical team start surgery, usually you will be given an anesthetic or anesthetic. Before answering questions about administering anesthesia during surgery, know that there are 3 types of anesthesia. The following are various types of anesthetics that will be used before surgery:
1. General (general) anesthesia
Anesthetic or general anesthesia is an anesthetic procedure that is given before surgery, which puts you to sleep during the operation. General anesthesia will not make you feel pain during the operation, because the effect can cause you to become completely unconscious.
2. Regional anesthetic
Anesthetic or regional anesthesia is an anesthetic procedure that numbs part of the body. The doctor will inject a regional anesthetic before surgery into the specific part of the nerve that is going to be operated on.
Typically, regional anesthesia is used during childbirth, thereby numbing parts of the body from the abdomen down (numbness). That is why, during childbirth, you still feel completely conscious but your lower body is numb.
Spinal anesthesia and epidural anesthesia are types of regional anesthesia.
3. Local anesthetics
Anesthetic or local anesthesia is an anesthetic procedure that makes the body feel numb or numb in certain areas. The area of the body that is subjected to local anesthetics before surgery is smaller than that of regional anesthetics.
An example of a medical procedure that uses local anesthetics is the tooth extraction process. Just like regional anesthesia, local anesthesia also does not make you fall asleep. This means that you are still fully conscious but do not feel pain in the area of the body that was operated on.
Is the patient always given an anesthetic before surgery?
In general, you will be given an anesthetic before the operation begins. Not only aims to reduce or even temporarily relieve pain.
Certain anesthetics can also make you fall asleep and unconscious during the operation, such as general anesthesia. This is because the drug works by turning off nerve signals in one, several, or all parts of the body.
That's why administering anesthetic can temporarily numb your body for a limited time. However, the type of anesthesia given to each surgical procedure is not always the same.
The doctor will determine the type of general, regional, or local anesthesia depending on the type of surgery and the medical condition you are experiencing.
Here's an example. If you are going to have a tooth extraction or serious dental surgery, the doctor will usually give you a local anesthetic. Likewise, when you are going to give birth, the anesthesia given is regional.
Meanwhile, general anesthesia is only given for heavy medical procedures such as appendectomy, organ transplantation, brain surgery, and others.
The medical condition determines the type of anesthetic used
It should be underlined that the types of anesthetics used in general, regional, and local anesthesia will be adjusted back to your condition. In other words, the anesthetic referred to here is a type of drug used to provide general, regional, or local anesthesia before surgery.
So, before the operation begins, the anesthetist will check your body condition and your medical history. Including allergies to certain drugs, medical history, as well as a history of previous anesthesia if any.
After that, the new doctor can determine the appropriate type of anesthetic to be given to you before undergoing surgery. If you have an allergy to certain drugs that are one type of anesthetic, your doctor may replace them with other possible anesthetics.
