GENERAL ANESTHESIA

Course overview

Anesthesia, General GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS Anesthesia is the process by which a patient is rendered able to undergo surgery. Surgery was, of course, commonly performed before any means was available to spare the patient any part of the experience. It takes little imagination to realize that an unanesthetized person enduring a surgical wound will exhibit several things including the following: •Evasive action •Severe pain and emotional distress •Maximum tension in skeletal muscles •Massive increase in sympathetic tone causing sweating, tachycardia, and hypertension •Vivid and unpleasant memory of the event forever The goals of anesthesia thus include the following: •Anesthesia (lack of awareness of surrounding events) •Akinesia (keeping the patient still to allow surgery to take place) •Muscle relaxation (to enable access through muscles to bones and body cavities) •Autonomic control (to prevent dangerous surges in hemodynamics)