Anesthesia

What it is and why it's important

The use of anesthesia has only been a common practice since the late 1800s, however, surgery has been around since the 15th century. Anesthesia is a wide term used for a variety of analgesics, including muscle relaxers, nerve blocks, and local pain removers. Procedures often use a mix of specific anesthetic chemicals, most often chemicals such as propofol, isoflurane, and sevoflurane. There are many different types of anesthetic chemicals and each of them has specific pros and cons of usage. For example, some anesthetics may cause more nausea, or help patients recover from being under faster.

Although in perspective anesthesia is a new component of medicine, it is now one of the most important pieces of modern-day medicine. Without anesthesia, not only would surgery still be an excruciating experience, but humanity would know a lot less about the way the body functions. Anesthesia has allowed us to better understand things such as the blood-brain barrier, nerve function, and also how to perform more intense life-saving procedures.

Anesthesiology

Oftentimes, when a patient is going into surgery, they think about their surgeon and their qualifications and overlook the role of their anesthesiologist. Surgeons are of course one of the major components in completing the purpose of a procedure, but anesthesiologists are the doctors that are ensuring patient survival and comfort. Anesthesiologists will analyze their patients before surgery to gauge their lifestyle to adjust their medications (eating habits, exercise, and smoking are all components an anesthesiologist needs to be aware of as these habits can affect the way that the body reacts to anesthetics). During surgery, anesthesiologists are the ones who monitor vital signs and ensure that the patient is comfortable and that their lungs and heart are working well. After surgery, anesthesiologists also ensure that pain management is maintained to ensure that recovery is as painless as possible.

Anesthesiologists don't only manage pain during procedures where the patient is put under. For example, anesthesiologists also manage pain in instances like Labor, and there have been recent advancements in nerve blocks. Nerve blocks are when anesthesiologists insert medication into a specific location in a limb and consequently make it so that sensation in the rest of the limb is essentially deleted for a short time. less potent versions of nerve blocks are also being implemented into pain management so that while the patient can still feel their limb, they can move freely while having a lessened amount of pain. these types of nerve blocks can last up to six weeks.