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General anaesthesia interrupts or changes the functions of CNS components including the cerebral cortex, thalamus, reticular activating system, and spinal cord. Theories of anaesthesia identify target sites in the CNS, neural networks and arousal circuits linked with unconsciousness, and some anaesthetics can potentially activate specific sleep ...
General anesthetics elicit a state of general anesthesia. It remains somewhat controversial regarding how this state should be defined. [2] General anesthetics, however, typically elicit several key reversible effects: immobility, analgesia, amnesia, unconsciousness, and reduced autonomic responsiveness to noxious stimuli. [2] [3] [4]
Anesthesia is a combination of the endpoints (discussed above) that are reached by drugs acting on different but overlapping sites in the central nervous system. General anesthesia (as opposed to sedation or regional anesthesia) has three main goals: lack of movement , unconsciousness, and blunting of the stress response. In the early days of ...
The first historical achievement in anesthesia occurred around 4000 BC in ancient Mesopotamia. [5] [10] [32] [33] [34] This was the advent of ethanol (commonly known as drinking alcohol), the first general anaesthetic agent.
In addition to general anesthesia, these include local, regional, epidural, or conscious sedation. Any type of anesthesia should generally be covered when used for essential procedures.
The Meyer-Overton correlation for anaesthetics. A nonspecific mechanism of general anaesthetic action was first proposed by Emil Harless and Ernst von Bibra in 1847. [9] They suggested that general anaesthetics may act by dissolving in the fatty fraction of brain cells and removing fatty constituents from them, thus changing activity of brain cells and inducing anaesthesia.
Leaves of the coca plant (Erythroxylum novogranatense var. Novogranatense), from which cocaine, a naturally occurring local anesthetic, is derived [1] [2]. An anesthetic (American English) or anaesthetic (British English; see spelling differences) is a drug used to induce anesthesia — in other words, to result in a temporary loss of sensation or awareness.
To determine the depth of anesthesia, the anesthetist relies on a series of physical signs of the patient. In 1847, John Snow (1813–1858) [1] and Francis Plomley [2] attempted to describe various stages of general anesthesia, but Guedel in 1937 described a detailed system which was generally accepted. [3] [4] [5]