Anesthesia...How does it put you to sleep?

Question

Not looking for a long complicated medical explanation w/ medical jargon... so on and so forth....

Answer 1

General anesthesia has different components that all work together to keep people safe and comfortable for surgery.

The first part is "induction", which is the going off to sleep part. We use a fast-acting i.v. drug to do that. (Usually propofol or pentothal) This drug works on the brain to cause unconsciousness, and it also takes away your ability ot breathe.

Most of the time, we then give a paralytic agent that blocks the transmission of signals between the nerve and muscles. This lets us get a breathing tube in, so that we can put the patient on a ventilator and deliver anesthetic gases.

The gases we use (desflurane, sevoflurane, isoflurane - relatives of ether) also work on the brain. They keep people asleep, and provide a small amount of muscle relaxation and pain relief. We might mix in nitrous oxide to make the gas we use "go farther". (It's a weak anesthetic, but lets us use less of the other stuff)

During the procedure, we usually give a sedative called midazolam (Versed) to aid in amnesia, and narcotic pain medicines (we have a bunch to choose from, but it's usually fentanyl, morphine, and/or dilaudid). Sometimes we use a short acting narcotic and a long acting narcotic, so there's some pain medicine on board when the patient wakes up.

We may or may not continue the paralytic, depending on the case.

Medicine to prevent an upset stomach is also frequently administered.

At the end, we may need to reverse the paralysis. We turn off the gas and give pure oxygen to help get rid of the residual anesthetic gas. We get him/her breathing again, and take out the breathing tube. Then it's off to recovery.

There are a lot of "sometimes" and "usually"'s in this explanation, because anesthesiology is more complex than most people realize (that's why we spend years learning how to do it), and every case is different.

Hope that helps.

Answer 2

One thing that makes medicine interesting and stimulating is that it's very much more complicated than most people think. Different drugs act in different ways on different parts of the brain/body to induce anesthesia. There just isn't a simple explanation, but if you're being put under soon your anesthesthiologist will plan what he feels is best for you and can give you a "Sleep for Dummies" version of his plan.

Answer 3

General anesthesia, in very simplistic terms, implies that medications are used that affect the brain in a way that causes unconsciousness. As a result, the patient becomes unaware of stimulation and pain and does not remember anything (amnesia). Some of the medications used are the same or similar to medications that are used in sedation, but often at a higher dose.

And, if not administered correctly, you can wake up in the middle of surgery... with tubes in your throat and nose like I did - not pleasant at all.

Answer 4

General anesthesia (the one that puts you to sleep) affects the brain cells, which causes you to lose consciousness.

More info on the source link...

Answer 5

a chemical...called anesthesia,puts you to sleep by running through your blood stream and right into your brain wich then triggers the part of the brain that says go to sleep.

Answer 6

"The aim of anesthesia is to produce a state whereby patients feel no pain, have no recall, are unconscious and do not move while surgery is occurring," says U of T anesthesia professor Dr. Isabella Devito. "To create these effects, anesthesiologists administer a broad array of narcotics, inhaled or injected agents and muscle relaxants, often in combination."

Answer 7

Anesthesia makes the control system of your brain inactive

Answer 8

Usually a drug named Pavulon. It blocks nerve impulses to muscles thereby causing temporary paralysis. Morphine or Dilaudid given on top of that to block pain signals from the brain by attaching to opiate receptors. Then Versed to keep you from remembering what you hear during surgery. That's what we always used in the OR!

Answer 9

works on the parts of the brain that put you to sleep!!!!!!