It was believed that during general anesthesia, the brain completely shuts down due to the fact that neurons begin to die. However, according to the head of the department of anesthesiology and resuscitation II (cardioanesthesiology) of the Russian Scientific Center for Surgery. Petrovsky, Professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Boris Axelrod, said that the damaging effect of anesthesia has not been proven.
“The modern concept of anesthesia does not mean that the brain is completely shut down, as if it were unplugged … During general anesthesia the brain is in a state of deep sleep and then the patient does not really remember. How was it on the operating table? But the concept that our center advocates is: to give the patient a minimum of adequate anesthesia so that some functions, such as hemodynamic control, are not turned off, ”said Akselrod socialbites.ca.
At the same time, you can bring the brain to the shutdown stage in anesthesia. But it is not necessary to achieve this, according to the expert.
“Actually, it has been more or less proven that excessive depth of anesthesia impairs cognitive function. And we try to choose the optimal one for the normal functioning of the vasomotor center, the absence of hemodynamic malfunctions (blood flow through the vessels) during anesthesia,” Axelrod concluded.
How anesthesia has come since it was first used in 1846, which phases of anesthesia are the most dangerous, whether dental treatment under general anesthesia is worth it, colonoscopy, gastroscopy, and what the average person should know about anesthesia before surgery – in report “socialbites.ca”.