Everyone is concerned that a patient may not be able to wake up from anesthesia, hence experts take precautions to ensure that they not only have a successful surgery, but also live to enjoy the results. It is very rare that someone does not wake up. If you don’t wake up, it is usually because something happened during the operation. Complications from anesthesia that lead to a lack of oxygen affecting the brain can occur but it is something, very, very rare. The experts have a lot of technology to warn them that there is a problem, so we should not worry about it.
Is it possible to wake up from general anesthesia in the middle of an operation?
“Waking up from general anesthesia in the middle of an operation is really rare, but it can happen in certain cases. The truth is that with current advances and the exquisite training of anesthesiologists, it is very rare for this to happen. In order to avoid these situations, the specialists analyze the vital signs throughout the entire intervention. Using general anesthesia control techniques, the anesthesiologist can successfully diagnose intraoperative awakening and remedy it before the patient experiences discomfort ”, states Siro Tato López, specialist in general anesthesia and sedation at Dr. Silmi Clinic (Silmi Dental ) and a member of TopDoctors.
What are the risks of general anesthesia?
“The application of general anesthesia is usually very safe and rarely leads to complications. However, there are people who experience some (usually temporary) side effects after the operation ”, explains the expert.
Side effects, according to the specialist in general anesthesia, can be:
– Feeling of extreme cold when waking up : this is a side effect of general anesthesia that hardly bothers you. It is enough to cover the patient well so that he warms up and the chills disappear.
– Nausea and vomiting : despite what many people think, general anesthesia is eliminated in the urine. This means that vomiting after surgery is not a consequence of anesthetic drugs. The reality is that some interventions carry a greater risk of producing nausea and vomiting during the postoperative period.
– Sore throat : this is a very common side effect when it is necessary to intubate a patient to carry out the surgical intervention.
– Disorientation: it can happen especially in elderly patients. Depending on your previous cognition, you may experience some disorientation upon awakening from anesthesia. This side effect usually goes away over time.
Potential risk factors
heart or lung problems
-daily alcohol use
-emergency surgery
-Caesarean section
-anesthesiologist error
-use of some additional medications
– depression
How does general anesthesia work?
The exact mechanisms that conspire to produce the state of general anesthesia are not well understood . The general theory is that its action is induced by altering the activity of membrane proteins in the neuronal membrane, possibly causing certain proteins to expand.
Of all the drugs used in medicine, general anesthetics are an unusual case. Instead of a single molecule acting in one place to produce a response, there are a wide variety of compounds; all of them generate fairly similar but widespread effects, including analgesia, amnesia, and immobility.
General anesthetic drugs such as sevoflurane act in various areas within the central nervous system. The importance of these locations in induction of anesthesia is not fully understood, but they include:
– Cerebral cortex: the outer layer of the brain involved in tasks related to memory, attention, perception, among other functions.
– Thalamus: Its functions include the transmission of information from the senses to the cerebral cortex and the regulation of sleep, wakefulness and consciousness.
– Reticular activation system: important to regulate sleep-wake cycles.
– Spinal cord : passes information from the brain to the body and vice versa. It also houses circuits that control reflexes and other motor patterns.
A number of different neurotransmitters and receptors are also known to be involved in general anesthesia:
– N-methyl-D-aspartic acid (NMDA) receptors : Some general anesthetics bind to NMDA receptors, including ketamine and nitrous oxide (N2O). They are known to be important in controlling synaptic plasticity and memory functions.
– 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) receptors : normally activated by the neurotransmitter serotonin, they play a role in controlling the release of other neurotransmitters and hormones.
– Glycine receptor: glycine can act as a neurotransmitter and has a number of functions. It has been shown to improve the quality of sleep.
Although general anesthetics contain many mysteries, they are very important in surgery and in the field of medicine in general.
