UNAIR NEWS – Anesthesia is the use of medicines to prevent patients from feeling pain during medical procedures, especially during surgery. Bambang Pujo Semedi dr SpAn(KIC) said that anesthesia plays an important role in surgery.
In a medical education program aired live on Dokter UNAIR TV YouTube channel on Friday, July 22, 2022, dr Bambang said that anesthesia is simple. However, the process should be done carefully to prevent following problems.
“The challenge in anesthesia is in waking up the patient, not in sedating phase,” he said.
He explained the four stages of anesthesia once the patient is sedated. The first stage is analgesia where the patient loses the ability to feel pain, followed by the second stage where the patient start to lose consciousness.
The third stage is where a total loss of equilibrium takes place. The patient is unconscious and feels no pain. The fourth stage occurs if the patient gets too much anesthesia.
“During an anesthesia procedure, the checklist is quite similar to the preflight checklist. Nothing should be left behind, or else, it could cause a fatal risk. Once the checklist is cleared, it’s good to go,” said dr Bambang.
3 types of anesthesia
There are three types of anesthesia, local anesthesia, regional anesthesia, and general anesthesia. Local anesthesia is used to prevent any pain in a particular area of the surgery. It is commonly used outside the operating room (OR) for hand swelling surgery and cataract surgery.
Regional anesthesia is performed by relieving pain in some parts of the body. It requires the same amount of preparation as general anesthesia. In other words, regional anesthesia is an ‘unsuccessful anesthesia’.
“Because there is a risk of nonfunctioning, it will have to switch to the general anesthesia,” dr Bambang said.
General anesthesia is a combination of medications that put patients in a sleep-like state before surgery. It is a pretty difficult procedure and needs to be measured and carefully done.
Side effects of anesthesia
The doctor further explains the side effects of anesthesia. Every anesthesia has its own specific risk. For example, regional anesthesia is not entirely safe for a patient who gets injected in the back or the bone marrow area. There is a chance for the needle got into the nerve which could possibly risk the patient.
“Certain parts may be numb for some time, while the others are not. It will be healed eventually,” he said.
Furthermore, dr Bambang said that general anesthesia has various complications, such as dropping or elevating blood pressure. In major surgery, the patient must be immobilized and put on a breathing tube which, in long-term use, can cause a sore throat and hoarseness.
“Patient induced with the appropriate amount of general anesthesia medication is put into a sleep-like state. The patient will eventually wake up from regular sleep [post-surgery]. But, with a lower dose, the patient will not be able to move, feels paralyzed, but can hear sounds, just like they had a dream,” he said.
Author: Wiji Astutik
Editor: Binti Q. Masruroh
