Operation without pain: types of anesthesia
Many medical procedures are so painful that sustain them without anesthesia, not even an adult, much less a child. The pain and fear associated with surgery is a very serious stress for the baby. So, even a simple medical procedure may cause neurotic disorders, such as urinary incontinence, sleep disturbance, nightmares, tics, stuttering. A painful shock may be even the cause of death.
To avoid discomfort and to reduce stress from medical procedures makes use of pain medications. Anesthesia is local – in this case, the anesthetic drug is injected into the tissue immediately surrounding the affected organ. In addition, the anesthesiologist can "turn off" the nerve endings, which pass impulses from one part of the body on which the operation is conducted in the child's brain.
In both cases, a certain area of the body loses sensitivity. The child remains fully conscious, though not feel pain. Local anesthesia acts locally and does not influence the General condition of the body. The only danger in this case may be associated with the occurrence of allergic reactions to the drug.
Actually anesthesia is called General anesthesia, which involves loss of consciousness of the patient. Under anesthesia, the child does not just become desensitized to the pain and plunged into a deep sleep. The use of different drugs and their combinations gives physicians the ability to suppress spontaneously occurring reflex and decrease the muscle tone. In addition, the use of General anesthesia causes complete amnesia after a medical intervention the baby will not remember the unpleasant sensation experienced on the operating table.
How dangerous is the anesthesia for a child?
It is obvious that General anesthesia has several advantages, and in cases of complex operations it is absolutely necessary. However, parents often worry about the negative consequences that could be caused by the anesthesia.
In fact, the use of anesthesia in children is associated with a number of difficulties. So, children's bodies are less sensitive to some medications, and to ensure that anesthetized, their concentration in the blood of the child needs to be much higher than in adults. Related to this is the danger of an overdose of anesthetics, which can cause a baby to hypoxia and other complications from the nervous and cardiovascular system leading to heart failure.
Another danger stems from the fact that the body of the child more difficult to maintain a stable body temperature: thermoregulation have not had time to develop properly. In this regard, in rare cases, it develops hyperthermia is a disorder that is caused by overcooling or overheating of the body. In order to avoid this, the anesthesiologist should carefully monitor the body temperature of little patient.
Alas, there is a risk of an allergic reaction to the drug. In addition, a number of complications can be associated with certain diseases that a child suffers. That is why it is so important before surgery tell the anesthesiologist about all the features of the child's body, transferred earlier diseases.
In General, modern anesthetics are safe, substantially non-toxic in and of themselves do not cause any negative effects. When properly selected dose experienced anesthetist will not allow any complications.
