Talk:General anaesthesia

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[edit] Is

Is it just me, or does this article not include a BASIC DEFINITION of what general anaesthesia is? Something like, "General anaestheisa is the medical practice of rendering a patient unconscious prior to surgery." Or something better than that, preferably by someone who actually knows what they're talking about, as opposed to me. This article just seems to launch right into the very "medicaly" stuff that makes my brain hurt. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.108.72.21 (talk • contribs) .

  • "...general anaesthesia is a state of total unconsciousness resulting from anesthetic drugs." That's the definition. To better address this, I changed the generic (and overused) 'Cleanup' tag to a 'Confusing' tag. Deltabeignet 01:05, 26 November 2005 (UTC)
That is the definition I just added a few hours ago to the article (before reading the comments here). --WS 04:56, 26 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Overview

Have fixed the link to GA drugs as being the same and the link further down the page. There was no page behind the URL. It reads better now. John Shannon Talk 8:26, 5th August 2006 (GMT+9)

[edit] Longer term effects of anaesthesia, contra-indicators, etc

Might it be worth mentioning some of the contra-indicators for GA in a bit more detail? I underwent GA just over a week and a half ago and (typically) got an offer to go in for another operation in a few days time. I declined on the basis that I suspected multiple GAs in such a short space of time would be bad for me. Do the drugs clear out of your system that quickly? What are the general rules for undergoing GA? Obviously, these rules change depending on clinical necessity.

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.194.2.169 (talk • contribs) 23:28, 24 April 2006

[edit] Mortality rate?

Those mortality rate figures seem kinda high. the percentages seem way off for how many surgeries are actually performed. can anyone add to that?

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.147.54.163 (talk • contribs) 07:50, 11 July 2006
Indeed - operative risk for, say, a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm is (I gather) about 90% (being 100% if one does not try to operate) vs 50% if in process of tearing vs under 5% if a routine operation for a merely distended non-tearing aneurysm. But these figures have nothing to do with the risks of GA itself, and all to do with the underlying condition & stability of the patient. I've removed the quite misleading (and uncited) info. David Ruben Talk 11:42, 11 July 2006 (UTC)
Around the world that I know off there have been 2 deaths (one in Australia in July, 2006 - huge media coverage), another in California, July, 2006 - R. Grace - no media coverage) that have been caused by GA drugs - or rather an alergic reaction to an anti-nausea agent used in the GA drug process. We need to find out what these anti-nausea drugs are, and determine if there is a process for testing a patient against these drugs, and the other GA drugs, in the days or maybe hours leading up to the GA. John Shannon Talk 8:13, 5th August 2006 (GMT+9)

–Is the mention of anaphylaxis to anti-emetics important enough to be mentioned here? I think not; induction agents, muscle relaxants, and anti-biotics are much more common causes of anaphylaxis during anaesthesia. --Thegasman 11:47, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Anaesthesia or Anesthesia?

I think we need a consensus and some consistency here! --Thegasman 11:47, 5 August 2006 (UTC)


- it depends on what part of the world you are from.  in Mother England it's anaesthesia

Yes, but for the sake of the article it should be consistent. Also, anaesthetist/anesthesiologist/anesthesia provider. It's confusing to read. As the the title is "General Anaesthesia I propose we should use the British spellings consistently, and mention the American versions in brackets after the first use of each term. Comments? --62.6.139.11 09:37, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

Agree - as per WP:MOS, articles should stick with whatever version of English they currently have, and to remain consistant within an article. So "anaesthe-" as root for all terms on this page with initial acknowledgement of alternative spellings. David Ruben Talk 13:28, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Anesthesia's longterm impact on developing brain cells?

Perhaps this is related to the 24Apr2006 question posed above...

http://whyfiles.org/251anesth_brain/index.php?g=1.txt

"Anesthesia is essential to surgery, but does it kill brain cells?"

Any suggestion about where this kind of research might best be found? 199.214.24.129 21:16, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Anesthesia safety statistics

In the US, up until about 1980 anesthesia was a significant risk, with at least one death per 10,000 times administered.[1] After becoming something of a public scandal, a careful effort was made to understand the causes and improve the results.[2] It is generally believed that anesthesia is now at least ten times safer than it was then.[3] However, there is some controversy about this.[4] In the US, the data is not made public (in fact, the data is not even collected), so the truth is uncertain.[5] The rate for dental anesthesia is reported to be one out of 350,000.[6]

See also:

-69.87.200.24 21:14, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Anaesthesia and sleep

Hello.

I'd like to know if general anaesthesia also causes the person to sleep. For example, suppose a person is suffering from insomnia, if they get knocked out by a mixture of these drugs, would they feel better once they regain consciousness (or at the very least would that be better than not sleeping at all)? Can you experience REM sleep during general anaesthesia? 193.217.54.222 (talk) 09:11, 13 December 2007 (UTC)

no you are not asleep in the sence if your were tired before the anaesetheic then you will be after as well —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.104.128.133 (talk) 08:50, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Stages?

The "Stages of anaesthesia" section lists a 4-stage progression, with an intro that notes that this progression "is largely replaced by the 3 stage classification.", but I see no other mention or link indicating what that means. DMacks (talk) 21:23, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

was wondering if you could add some infromation about the drugs general side effects I know many differnt ones are used but just the general side effects and porblem that this could cause if you have an ADVERSE reaction to any of the durgs administered —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.104.128.133 (talk) 08:42, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

not the stages any reactions you may get from the drugs eg Increase or decrease in blood pressure or risk of heart attack etc??? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.104.128.133 (talk) 08:47, 27 May 2008 (UTC)