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An inhalational anesthetic is a chemical compound possessing general anesthetic properties that is delivered via inhalation. They are administered through a face mask, laryngeal mask airway or tracheal tube connected to an anesthetic vaporiser and an anesthetic delivery system .
General anaesthetics can be administered either as gases or vapours (inhalational anaesthetics), or as injections (intravenous or even intramuscular).All of these agents share the property of being quite hydrophobic (i.e., as liquids, they are not freely miscible—or mixable—in water, and as gases they dissolve in oils better than in water).
General anaesthesia (UK) or general anesthesia (US) is medically induced loss of consciousness that renders a patient unarousable even by painful stimuli. [5] It is achieved through medications, which can be injected or inhaled, often with an analgesic and neuromuscular blocking agent.
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.
The purpose of anesthesia can be distilled down to three basic goals or endpoints: [2]: 236 hypnosis (a temporary loss of consciousness and with it a loss of memory.In a pharmacological context, the word hypnosis usually has this technical meaning, in contrast to its more familiar lay or psychological meaning of an altered state of consciousness not necessarily caused by drugs—see hypnosis).
All medicines may have adverse effect on patients; some serious adverse effects of anesthesia may be caused by inhalational anesthetic, although in general these medicines are highly safe and useful. [18] Using the correct amount of balanced anesthetic agents, the adverse effects can be reduced to some extent. [18]
Sevoflurane is an inhaled anesthetic that is often used to induce and maintain anesthesia in children for surgery. [17] During the process of awakening from the medication, it has been associated with a high incidence (>30%) of agitation and delirium in preschool children undergoing minor noninvasive surgery. [17]
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.