Risks

General anesthesia is always a serious interference with the natural processes in the body. Healthy, young people usually survive this procedure very well, while older patients suffer more from adaptation difficulties. The individual risk depends less on pure age than on previous illnesses, which are much more common in old age.

Many older people take daily medication for cardiovascular diseases, lung damage and many other diseases, which increase the risk of anaesthesia.One example of such drugs is blood thinners, which often have to be discontinued before surgery. This can lead to thrombi during surgery and thus to heart attacks or strokes. Liver or kidney damage can also lead to complications during anaesthesia, as the anaesthetic drugs are broken down differently and the kidneys also have an influence on blood pressure.

Furthermore, many older people are diabetics, so that blood sugar must be closely monitored. All in all, therefore, anaesthesia must be planned much more precisely than in a healthy person. Some elderly patients also develop a continuity syndrome after general anesthesia, a strong confusion that can last for several days.

In most cases, post-operative monitoring is necessary and the daily medication has to be readjusted. In principle, the risk of general anesthesia depends not only on age, but also on the general condition and previous illnesses. In children, one risk area is the planning of the anaesthesia, as children are not just small adults.

Their liver and kidney performance can be very individual, which leads to a more complex dosage of anaesthetic drugs. Furthermore, the ventilation situation can be difficult in small children. In this case it is helpful if an operation is accompanied by an experienced pediatrician who can support the anesthesiologist.

Children can compensate blood losses very well and for a long time before they develop circulation problems very suddenly. This makes it difficult for the anesthetist to see if the circulation is getting problems and to take countermeasures in time. Some studies say that general anaesthesia can damage children’s memory, but the ability to repair this is also very strong in small children.

With a Caesarean section, as with other operations, there are the normal risks of general anesthesia. However, especially in the case of an emergency C-section in a foreign hospital, there are the additional risks of emergency surgery. These are that the patient may not be fasting and that the anaesthetist has no time for individual anaesthetic planning.

It is therefore important that expectant mothers always have their maternity record card ready, as it contains all the important health information about mother and child. This can reduce the risks of anesthesia. Wisdom tooth surgery under general anesthesia has the same risks as any other general anesthesia.

However, since the people affected are mostly healthy, young people, the risks are low. Specific to dental operations under general anesthesia is a higher risk of postoperative bleeding, as vasoconstrictive anesthetics cannot be used under general anesthesia. In addition, patients suffer more frequently from wound pain and cheek swelling than patients who receive local anesthesia.

The risk of general anesthesia increases considerably if the person concerned has previous diseases of the cardiovascular system. The anaesthetics themselves can lead to complications during anaesthesia both through their direct effect on the heart and through interactions with the daily medication. Furthermore, the volume administration through infusions is stressful for patients with cardiac insufficiency.

Anaesthesia can also lead to activation of the unconscious nervous system and thus trigger cardiac arrhythmia and cardiac arrest. Due to these increased risks, careful anesthesia planning and close monitoring during the operation is necessary. The risks of general anesthesia in dementia patients arise primarily in the planning of the anesthesia.

The collection of important information, such as medication and pre-existing conditions, can only be done through third parties. It is also difficult to explain the necessity of fasting to the person affected, which is why risk anaesthesia can occur quickly. In addition to these increased risks caused by dementia itself, those affected often have various other diseases of different body systems due to their age, which they often do not know themselves.

After general anesthesia, there are also more frequent reports of a relapse of dementia. However, this can also be a regression of the passage syndrome after a few days, which occurs more frequently in dementia patients. The dementia can therefore worsen acutely after the operation, which is due to the anaesthesia.

The risk of dying from general anesthesia is very low today due to modern monitoring technology. Depending on the statistics, the figures are between 0.008% and 0.009%, which is not significantly higher than with other procedures.Very old people with previous illnesses and infants and small children have a slightly higher risk. In order to minimize the risk, a detailed preliminary talk is necessary to plan the anesthesia, during which the person concerned should definitely answer all questions honestly.