Health encyclopaedia

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How is it performed? of Anaesthesia

Nowadays, general anaesthesia is seldom administered via a mask and anaesthetic gas or vapour. It is almost always given by injecting a drug, which acts so rapidly that you are barely aware that anything is happening before waking up in the recovery ward, or back in bed.

Only after deep unconsciousness is induced will the gases, which maintain anaesthesia, be turned on. There is none of the sense of suffocation that was once a feature of general anaesthesia.

The gas nitrous oxide, although pleasant to breathe in, is not very good at producing unconsciousness. However, it does reduce pain sensation (analgesic action), and a mixture of it and oxygen ('gas and air') is sometimes used alone to relieve labour pains.

Modern general anaesthesia no longer relies on deep and dangerous levels of unconsciousness to achieve muscle relaxation. The principle today is to use drugs for muscle relaxation and to keep the patient at a shallow (and safe) level of anaesthesia.

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