Definition
General anesthesia is a procedure used in surgical operations that puts the patient into complete unconsciousness, during which independent breathing is suspended.
Applications
General anesthesia is always used when long and complex procedures are involved or when there is a risk that the patient’s restlessness could jeopardize the surgical procedure. Furthermore, general anesthesia must be used if the surgical procedure requires complete relaxation of the striated muscles. In operations where muscles have to be cut, it is necessary to reduce the tone of the muscles and make them slack.
This can only be done under general anesthesia. With local anesthesia, the patient’s muscle strength is usually maintained during the procedure. It is therefore extremely difficult for the surgeon to penetrate into deeper tissue layers, because the tension of the muscles counteracts this.
A surgical intervention is also always a great stress factor for a patient. If major abdominal operations were not performed under general anesthesia, and if the patient were fully conscious but without pain, this would mean a considerable stress factor (noticed or unnoticed) for the patient. In the meantime, general anesthesia can be adjusted quite precisely in terms of time.
In the case of short operations, the patient wakes up quickly, in the case of longer operations, the patient is kept unconscious longer. In addition to surgical interventions, general anesthesia is also used whenever diseases or injuries are so severe that the patient’s consciousness, especially through the sympathetic nervous system, would worsen the patient’s prognosis. Patients whose breathing has become insufficient and the need for ventilation is given, are always put under general anesthesia, because the patients would not tolerate applied procedures in full consciousness. Keeping a patient calm and restricting bodily functions may be necessary in severe cases.
Duration of general anesthesia
The duration of the effect of general anesthesia is variable and depends on the intervention or indication. It is possible to use general anesthesia for 10 minutes for small procedures or up to 12 hours for long procedures. If a patient is to be kept under controlled general anesthesia due to a serious illness, anesthesia times of several weeks are possible.
The state, also known as artificial coma, can theoretically be maintained indefinitely if the corresponding bodily functions are constantly monitored and an anaesthetic is given continuously. The longer a general anaesthesia is carried out, the longer it usually takes for the general anaesthesia to be discharged. In this procedure, also known as weaning, the drugs leading to general anaesthesia are reduced bit by bit and at the same time care is taken to ensure that the body takes over more of the functions itself. If this does not succeed, which can always be the case with long anaesthesia of several days or weeks, the general anaesthesia must be renewed and the weaning must be maintained accordingly.
