Anaesthesia safer nowadays

Vijayawada: With the advent of anaesthesia, there has been considerable advancement in the surgery and people are unnecessarily misunderstanding the use of anaesthesia which is used only for conducting operations, said noted anaesthesiologist Dr Y Ashok while addressing the health education programme at Vasavya Nursing Home here with Dr G Samaram in the chair on Saturday.

Dr Ashok said that anaesthesia will be administered in various methods depending upon the exigencies during surgeries. Broadly speaking, anaesthesia could be classified as general anaesthesia, regional anaesthesia including epidural, spinal and nerve block anaesthesia, combined general and epidural anaesthesia and monitored anaesthesia care with conscious sedation.

If administered anaesthesia to the spine, people rather wrongly believe that it would cause lower backache, which is not true, Dr Ashok said. "There are also misconceptions that the brain will be damaged if the patient is administered total anaesthesia," he said adding that the anaesthesia would keep the patient under sedation but it would not damage brain cells.

He said that it is also not true that the anaesthesia should not be administered to aged and the infants. "Anaesthesia could be safely administered to 100-year-old person for conducting operation," he said.With the help of latest methods, nowadays the anaesthesia could be administered to foetus through the mother while conducting operation, he said.

By administering epidural anaesthesia, delivery could be conducted without causing pain to pregnant woman, he said adding that with the help of latest techniques the doctors could provide relief to suffering of patients. Dr Maru proposed a vote of thanks.