Question

What is the difference between general anesthesia, local anesthesia, and sedation?

Answer 1

General Anasthesia

General anasthesia is the medically induced state in which the person become totall unconscious. here variety of drugs are used to induce the complete paralysis of the body. Usually the patient will be connected to the ventillator because some times, it can cause respiratory and cardiac depression. The patient cannot eat or drink befor general anastesia. They will be in a stage of NPO.There are different methods of delivery of general anasthesia.General anasthesia has different stages. As general anasthesia may cause complete paralysis of major muscle groups, constant monitoring of the patient is necessary.they are usaully given for very long surgical procedures like knee replacement, amputation etc. The patient may take long time to recover from the effects of anasthesia.

Local Anasthesis

Local anasthesia is the type of procedure in whicg any particular body part is anesthetized. Here only, the body part which is going to be operated is anasthetized. The effect of local anastesis may last only for a short period. Local anasthesias are commonly used for minor procedures like tooth extraction, D& C etc. there is no associated complications like cardiac arrest, respiratory depression etc. Here the drug is injected superficially over the area needed with a common syringe. Some of these agents can be applied superficially over the skin.Local anastesia never cause any muscle paralysis as like general anastesia. The local anasthesia usually works by preventing the nerve pathways to send signals to the brain. Usually it take only few minutes for the drug to start its action.Local anasthesia does not interfere with eating or drinking. The person can have his food on time.But local anastesia on the oral cavity and all can not have their food until sensation is back.

Sedation

Sedation is a mediacally induced stage of light sleep.In sedation the patient will be drowsy and sleepy. All the muscles and joint of the body will remain in a state of complete relaxation here. This is usually given before any pain ful procedures.The sedation can be minimum, moderate or deep, and it is selected on the basis of the patients age, associated health problem the procedure physician is going to perform.In sedation the patient is arousable with some stimuli. especially sternal pain.In sedation, the cardiac and respiratory system is functioning well and there is no drug induced depression for these systems.Reverse sedation agents are available, they can be administred to the patient, after competion of the procedure to aroise the patient. During the period of sedation, the individual can hear the sounds,smell and feel the touch etc. But only the pain sensation is lost. Sedation is usually not associated with any complications. The patient can easily get back or arouse from the sedation.