If you ever had surgery you might have remembered from the countdown of 1 to 10 that you are unconscious and by the time you are in your consciousness, you are waking up with your surgery already over. It might seem that you were asleep but you were not. You were under medication of anesthesia, it is much complicated. You were unconscious and could not move, form memories or you could feel pain and most important the surgery could have been traumatic.
In Ancient times, In the Middle East, Asia and Egypt discovered anesthesia containing things like opium poppy, mandrake fruit, and alcohol. But it has been changed today, now the anesthesiologist conglomerate regional, inhalational and intravenous agents for balancing the surgery. How do these three components work together?
Regional- It works as a pain signal at the specific part of the body to block the pain from getting it to the brain. The nerve impulses help the body system to travel the pain mechanism, so the Regional acts as a barricade to block the pain. For example, cocaine, it is occasionally used as an anesthesia drug because of many other regional anesthetics has a similar chemical structure and also work in the same way.
Source: www.webmd.com
Inhalation anesthetic- For major surgery of unconsciousness you will need something which can act on the entire nervous system and that is Inhalation anesthetic. Western medicine first used common drug diethyl ether. It was known as the recreational drugs until the doctors had discovered that injuries they receive are under the influence of the drug. They started sedating dental surgeries, during the following decades nitrous oxide became popular and it is still used today.
Source: www.openpr.com
Intravenous anesthesia- Inhalation anesthesia is often given with Intravenous anesthesia which was developed in the 19th century. Common Intravenous agents include soporific like Propofol which persuades unconsciousness and opioids like fentanyl which helps in reducing pain.
Source: www.wisegeek.com
Normally, the electrical signal is topsy turvy as different parts of brains connect and communicate with each other and that keeps us awake. But when someone has anesthetized the brain, those signals become organized and tranquil. We still don’t about how this exactly happens, there are several common receptors which bind the GABA-A receptors in the brain’s neurons. they open the gateway of negatively charged particles inside the cell which builds and acts as a jam to stop the electrical flow of signal of nerve.