Side effects of general anesthesia in children
Even in children, certain side effects can occur after general anesthesia.Very small children are often very restless, crying or screaming for 10-15 minutes after waking up. This is due to a temporary state of confusion caused by the general anesthesia. Some children complain of nausea or vomiting after the general anesthesia.
However, this does not happen very often. In addition, sore throat can occur after the operation due to the breathing tube inserted before the operation, but this will improve quickly once the child has eaten and drunk something. Otherwise, the same risks and side effects of general anesthesia apply to children as to adult patients. For example, there may be intolerance to the medication, secondary bleeding or bruising may occur in the area of the puncture site of venous/arterial accesses, and in the event of nerve damage, sensory disturbances may remain in the corresponding area. In general, general anesthesia is nowadays also performed without complications in most cases in children.
Duration of side effects after general anesthesia
Unfortunately, it is not always possible to predict how long side effects will last after general anesthesia. Nevertheless, the duration of the side effects after general anesthesia is usually limited to a certain period of time, depending on how long the operation took, whether there were complications and how the patient reacts individually to the anesthetic gases as well as the administered medication. Since especially female patients who do not smoke and who quickly become nauseous are more likely to have problems with the after-effects of anesthesia, these patients often experience a longer duration of side effects after general anesthesia.
This is due to the fact that different receptors in the brain are activated during anaesthesia, which are also activated during smoking, for example. If a patient is used to this because he or she smokes more often, the brain does not react to the usual stimulus in a different way than usual. However, if a patient is not used to this stimulus, the stimulation of the receptors by the anaesthetic gases and the drugs given during general anaesthesia will cause an imbalance in the brain.
The patient notices this after the operation through side effects such as confusion and nausea. How long after general anesthesia the side effects last depends on how well the brain copes with the substances administered during the operation. On the other hand, the duration of the side effects after general anaesthesia depends on how quickly the patient’s body can process the drugs and gases administered under general anaesthesia.
On the one hand, this depends on the physical fitness of the patient and on the function of the liver and kidney. Especially in older patients, the duration of side effects after general anesthesia is often much longer than in healthy and fit patients. It is difficult to estimate how long the side effects of general anesthesia will last, but usually the patient must expect to struggle with the side effects for the first day after a major operation under general anesthesia.
From the second day on, however, a significant improvement should already set in and the patient should be free of symptoms. In rare cases, however, the duration of the side effects after general anesthesia may be much longer and the patient may still feel nausea or recurrent confusion up to 6 weeks after the operation. In rare cases, the duration of the side effects after general anesthesia may be so long that the patient develops an independent disease.
Especially depressions (postoperative depression), which occur after surgery under general anesthesia, can be triggered by general anesthesia and do not disappear by themselves. How long the side effect of general anesthesia lasts in this case depends mainly on the personal commitment of the patient, because if depression with lack of drive and listlessness occurs, the patient should consult a psychologist or psychiatrist as early as possible to prevent the depression from hardening. In general, however, a so-called chronification of a disease after general anesthesia is very rare and the duration of the side effects after anesthesia is often only a few hours to days.
Exactly how long the side effects last after general anesthesia can never be estimated.In general, the longer the operation and the more susceptible the patient is to the anaesthetics (because he does not smoke, he gets sick quickly, etc. ), the longer the side effects after general anaesthesia last. Further information on the topic of side effects under general anesthesia can be found here:
- Main topic general anesthesia
- General anesthesia risks
- General anesthesia for colds
- General anesthesia for children
- Epidural anaesthesia
