Side Effects and Complications That May Arise From Anesthetic Drugs

Medical Video: General Anesthesia

Depending on the size of the medical procedure you need, your doctor will usually inject an anesthetic to kill your body during surgery or surgery. The action of anesthesia can make a patient immune from pain and pain for a moment, but that does not mean the anesthetic drug is risk-free from side effects and complications after the anesthesia effect subsides.

What is an anesthetic?

The term anesthesia comes from Greek which means loss of sensation. Anesthesia is a pre-operative medical action that aims to reduce the pain that may be caused during the procedure by blocking the sensory signal to the brain that makes someone alert / wake up or feel something.

During the influence of anesthesia, you become calmer, do not feel pain, or fall asleep by force. Anesthesia is also useful for regulating breathing speed, blood pressure and flow and heart rate and rhythm. When the anesthetic effect disappears the nerve signal will return to the brain so that the awareness and sensations experienced by the body return to normal.

Side effects of anesthesia can begin to appear when the effects of anesthesia disappear. There are many factors that can lead to an increase in a person's risk of experiencing side effects and the effects of anesthesia, such as levels of health and fitness, as well as diet and lifestyle. The risk of side effects can also be different from each other, depending on the type of anesthesia the patient receives.

Side effects of general anesthesia

General anesthesia is also known as general anesthesia. This is a type of anesthetic which causes the patient to become completely unconscious and will not feel pain during surgery. The effect of this drug affects the work of the brain and all other body parts.

General anesthesia is done by injecting anesthetic fluid into a vein or by using the flow of anesthetic gas through the installation of a special mask. This type of anesthesia is used for major operations taking into account the safety and comfort of the patient.

There are several side effects that can be caused from general anesthesia, including:

Allergic reactions to anesthetic drugs
Nausea and vomiting
Tooth decay
Decreased body temperature to hypothermia
Headache
Back pain
Failure of respiratory system function
Awake in the middle of the operation process

Impact of specific complications that can be caused by general anesthesia:

Respiratory tract infections - can be an infection of the larynx, sore throat to pneumonia. This is because a decrease in consciousness can cause the respiratory tract to not last a week. Especially if the anesthetic effect makes the patient nauseous and vomiting and vomiting fluid is not able to be released can cause inflammation and infections in the respiratory tract to the lungs. But this can be overcome by fasting or limiting intake a few hours before surgery, doctors can also give the drug with the substance metoclopramide to help empty the stomach and ranitidine to increase gastric pH levels.
Damage to peripheral nerves - is a type of impact that other types of anesthesia can experience; regional and local anesthesia. This can happen because the process of surgery or body position is permanent and does not move for a long time. The part of the body most often affected is the upper arm and the leg around the knee. Nerve damage can be prevented and minimized by avoiding the patient's extreme body position and inhibiting blood flow during surgery.
Embolism - is a barrier to blood flow due to the presence of foreign objects in the blood vessels including blood clots and air. Emboli caused by angina is more likely to be the action of the nervous system surgery and surgery around the pelvic bone. The risk of this can be minimized by prophylactic administration thromboembolic deterrents (TEDS) and low molecular weight heparin (LMWH).
Dead - is the most serious type of complication even though the chance of occurrence is very small. Death from general anesthesia is something that is influenced by many factors, ranging from the type of surgery, the patient's health and comorbidities or other conditions that can endanger the operation process.

Side effects of regional anesthesia

Regional anesthesia is a type of anesthetic drug that focuses on nerve work by blocking motor, sensory and autonomic work. Regional anesthesia is performed with the spinal cord target or the cerebrospinal fluid. Regional anesthesia has a lower risk of death compared to general anesthesia, but has a risk of damage to the respiratory system.

Side effects that can be caused by regional anesthesia:

Pain and headache
Hypotension
Decreased body temperature to hypothermia
Bleeding
Anesthetic poisoning
Allergic reactions
Spinal infections
Brain sheath infection (meningitis)
Failure of respiratory system function

The following are some of the specific complications that regional anesthesia can cause

Total spinal block - is the term for blocking peripheral nerve cells caused by an overdose of anesthetic used in the spine. This causes paralysis in the muscles. Nerve blocking can also cause respiratory system failure when the patient is unconscious. To deal with respiratory problems, additional measures may be needed to make the respiratory and ventilation channels.
Hypotension - Decreased blood pressure is the result of blocking sympathetic nerve function. This can be overcome by increasing the pressure on the blood vessels with additional fluids, but this needs to pay attention to the patient's heart health history.
Neurological deficit - is a decrease in the function of some nerves found in the spine which can be temporary or permanent. The main cause is damage to the spinal cord which results in a decrease in the work of the sensory nerve and a decrease in the body's motor abilities.

Side effects from local anesthesia

Local anesthesia is a type of anesthetic used for mild surgery that involves only a small portion of the body's surface area. Local anesthesia causes numbness in a small part of the body by injecting an anesthetic drug into the area to be dissected to relieve pain. The patient will stay awake when carried out by local anesthesia.

Unlike other types of general and regional anesthesia, this type of anesthesia does not have any complications, but it is still possible to cause a variety of side effects, namely: