Anaesthesia refers to a state of no sensation and can be general, regional or local. General anaesthesia involves drugs which induce a deep sleep; regional anaesthesia (epidural / spinal) involves injecting drugs around the spine to numb the legs and abdomen; local anaesthesia involves injecting drugs into the skin to numb a small area. Sedation involves drugs that produce sleepiness or a light sleep but stop short of general anaesthesia.
All of these techniques can be used alone or in combination depending on the specific procedure. The decision as to which is best for your situation will be made by your consultant anaesthetist after discussion with you.
Common Concerns
1. Nausea
Nausea (feeling sick) has been reported to occur in up to 20% of patients following anaesthesia – however my personal audited practice demonstrated a nausea rate of 0.5%. As an expert in intravenous anaesthesia which avoids the use of anaesthetic gases (the major cause of anaesthesia induced nausea) and my experience of anaesthetising for day surgery means you are unlikely to suffer this issue.
2. Post-operative pain
Every patient feels pain in a slightly different way and I will tailor your pain control to your requirements, but to only include what is safe for you and your condition. I will use a combination of pain killers with complimentary ways of working which are progressively strong to ensure your comfort. In certain circumstances, when there is a clinical benefit, I may offer specific local anaesthetic injections (performed during your general anaesthetic) to numb the surgical site for a number of hours after the operation.
3. Awareness under general anaesthesia
Patient reported awareness under general anaesthesia is rare (1:20,000). It is more likely when muscle relaxants are required for the surgical procedure which paralyse the bodies muscles during the operation. If insufficient anaesthetic reaches the patient while the muscle relaxant is still effective then the early warning signs of a light anaesthetic will be masked which if left unchecked may progress to awareness.
The use of intravenous anaesthetics, in which I specialise, allows many more surgical procedures to be performed without the use muscle relaxants, reducing the likely hood of awareness.
Also recent development has helped this situation. There is now a monitor which scrutinises the electrical brain waves during anaesthesia and it is thought that this helps detect the risk of awareness. I use it during every anaesthetic.
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PHD Anaesthesia 