Introduction
General anesthesia is performed in thousands of clinics every day. With the help of newer drugs and their special combinations, it is possible to keep the risk of anaesthesia as low as possible. Nevertheless, every operation and general anesthesia is also associated with risks, side effects and anxiety.
The most common side effects after general anesthesia
Common side effects after general anesthesia are nausea and vomiting after anesthesia. One third of the anaesthetised patients have nausea, 25% vomit. This may be due to medication or to irritation of the windpipe or the nerves passing nearby.
- Some patients have hoarseness shortly after the procedure. This is caused by irritation of the vocal cords through the tube during the operation. In very few cases the vocal cords are permanently damaged.
- The so-called aspiration is another complication of general anesthesia.
It can happen that gastric juice or water droplets enter the lungs through the instruments and can lead to pneumonia even days after the procedure. The patient’s aspiration risk decreases with the patient’s fasting. If it is an emergency operation before which the patient was not fasting, the risk of aspiration increases rapidly with life-threatening consequences.
In some cases, the drugs can cause circulatory instability during and after anesthesia. In this case, the procedure must be shortened accordingly or the monitoring time after the procedure must be extended.
- A very rare but serious complication of general anesthesia is the so-called malignant hyperthermia. This is a genetic disease that breaks out when the anaesthetic is administered.
The metabolic reactions begin to progress rapidly, the body produces a lot of heat by trembling and the blood salts get out of balance. This is a life-threatening condition. In this case the general anesthesia must be stopped immediately.
As an antidote, the active ingredient dantrolene is administered to the patient. Under certain circumstances, the patient may need to be monitored and ventilated for a longer period of time after the onset of malignant hyperthermia. It is important that the patient is able to inform the physicians about this reaction for future operations with general anesthesia.
After general anesthesia, side effects such as nausea are quite normal.
The reason for this is that during the anaesthesia the patient is not only administered various drugs that ensure that he or she is deeply asleep and does not feel any pain during the operation, but also absorbs anaesthetic gases. Especially the latter leads to side effects such as nausea and vomiting after general anesthesia. Patients who do not smoke are particularly susceptible to side effects such as nausea after general anaesthesia and who often feel sick when travelling.
In general, women seem to suffer more frequently from side effects such as nausea, vomiting and mild confusion after general anaesthesia. In addition, if a female patient does not smoke, her brain is not used to drug-like substances, so that the drugs and the anaesthetic gases are more difficult for her to cope with than a male patient who smokes regularly. If a female patient knows from her last operation that she will suffer particularly severely from side effects such as nausea or vomiting after the general anaesthetic, she can mention this in the preliminary consultation with the anaesthetist (anaesthetist).
Shortly before the end of the operation, the anesthesiologist can then inject the patient with a medication that can minimize the nausea after the operation. In general, this is mainly done in the neck area, as it would be bad if the patient had to throw up after the operation because of the wounds in the neck area. In general, however, it is not uncommon to experience side effects such as nausea or confusion after general anesthesia.
Especially the nausea usually disappears within a day because the anesthetic gases have been removed from the body and can no longer act in the brain at the receptors that make the patient feel sick. In addition, it is usually the case that a patient does not feel any side effects such as nausea at all after the general anaesthesia and that he/she wakes up in the recovery room without any problems.However, if side effects such as nausea occur after general anesthesia, the patient can always tell a nurse or a doctor so that he or she can receive medication to suppress the nausea. Under general anesthesia, the patient is ventilated via a breathing tube in the neck.
This is necessary because during general anesthesia the muscles are immobilized with medication and in this process the respiratory muscles also become weaker and in addition the respiratory center in the brain does not work normally. This breathing tube leads to sore throat after the operation in some patients, because the mucous membrane is irritated. Sore throat is one of the most common after-effects of general anesthesia, but it usually subsides after a few hours.
Just like the sore throat, hoarseness also comes from breathing with the breathing tube. The tube has to be passed through the glottis into the trachea and in doing so the glottis itself and the responsible nerve are irritated. Therefore, the glottis cannot be opened completely normally after the ventilation tube is removed, which leads to a hoarse pronunciation.
The hoarseness is also reduced in most cases after a few hours. In rare cases, the vocal folds are injured during intubation, which causes a longer hoarseness. The intubation, the insertion of the breathing tube, can in some cases lead to tooth damage.
During intubation, the anesthetist uses a metal spatula, the laryngoscope, to lift the jaw and the tongue to get a clear view of the larynx. If this metal spatula is used too jerkily or as a lever, it may hit the teeth. Since some force is sometimes required for intubation, this impact can cause the affected teeth to break off.
Damage to teeth is difficult to prevent, especially with loose teeth. As a preventive measure, a silicone mouthguard can be placed between the teeth and the laryngoscope during intubation. In case of removable third teeth, these should be removed before the anaesthetic. Patients should be informed about this risk before the anaesthesia. If tooth damage occurs during intubation, a dentist should be consulted promptly to initiate the appropriate treatment of the injured tooth.
