ANAESTHESIA

Anaesthesia is a series of techniques which allow a surgical procedure to be performed either with no pain at all or with what pain there is greatly eased. There are two main types of anaesthesia: general anaesthetics and locoregional anaesthetics.

GENERAL ANAESTHETICS

General anaesthesia is a state which is comparable to sleep, produced by the intravenous injection of drugs and/or by the breathing in of anaesthetic vapours, using an appropriate device. Locoregional anaesthesia uses various techniques so that only the part of your body on which the operation will be performed is sent to sleep. It works by blocking the nerves in this region, by injecting a local anaesthetic around them. A general anaesthetic may be used as well or may become necessary, especially in cases where the locoregional anaesthesia is insufficient.

Risks and drawbacks of general anaesthetic

New techniques and new drugs have made nausea and vomiting on awakening less common. Accidents involving vomit getting into the lungs are very rare as long as the patient stays nil by mouth as instructed. The introduction of a tube into the trachea (intubation) or into the throat (laryngeal mask) to allow breathing during the anaesthesia can cause sore throats or temporary hoarseness, and there may also be dental traumatisms in some cases. This is why it is important that you tell us about any special dental appliances or anything fragile in your mouth. There can be a painful red blotch around the vein into which the drugs have been injected but it disappears within a few days. Lying on the operating table for a long time can cause compressions, especially in certain nerves, which can lead to numbness or, in exceptional cases, the paralysis of an arm or a leg. In most cases, things get back to normal either within a few days or a few weeks. Temporary memory problems or a decrease in the ability to concentrate can occur for a few hours after the anaesthesia. Unforeseeable life-threatening complications such as a serious allergy, heart failure or asphyxia are extremely rare. In order to give you an idea of just how rare this is, a serious complication only happens once in hundreds of thousands of operations under anaesthetic.

LOCOREGIONAL ANAESTHESIA

Local anaesthetic combined with deep sedation is another form of locoregional anaesthesia. It means that the tissues on which the operation is to be performed can be put to sleep locally by means of injections carried out by the surgeon and the patient is put to sleep using hypnotic type drugs administered intravenously. This form of anaesthesia is widely used in aesthetic surgery, especially by Laclinic specialists.

Any general or locoregional anaesthesia carried out for a non-urgent procedure requires a pre-anaesthetic consultation and examination, the day before or a few hours before the anaesthesia depending upon hospital admission procedures. Like the anaesthesia, they are carried out by an anaesthetist. At the consultation and examination, you are given a chance to ask any questions you may have. The choice of type of anaesthetic will be made on the basis of the scheduled procedure, your state of health and the results of any additional examinations which might be prescribed.

Risks and drawbacks of locoregional anaesthesia

There may be headaches after rachianaesthesia or a peridural anaesthetic. They sometimes require several days’ rest or/and a specific local treatment. Temporary paralysis of the bladder may require the temporary fitting of a urinary catheter. There may also be some pain at the puncture point in the back and the puncture may need to be repeated if there is any difficulty. There may be temporary itching when morphine or its derivatives are used. Very rarely we see a temporary reduction in auditory or visual acuity. Depending on the combinations of drugs, there may be temporary memory problems or a decrease in the ability to concentrate for a few hours after the anaesthesia. More serious complications such as convulsions, heart failure, permanent paralysis or varying loss of sensation are extremely rare. Only a few cases have been described, whereas hundreds of thousands of anaesthesia operations of this type are carried out every year.