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Anesthesia

Anesthesia is commonly perceived as the sleeping drug or gas, aimed at putting the patient to “sleep” during surgery so that the surgical team is able to comfortably operate without the patient feeling any pain. 

There are 3 types of anesthesia, namely: regional, inhalation and intravenous. Regional anesthesia blocks pain receptors and hence nerve impulses from travelling to the brain in a targeted area. In neurons, anesthesia binds onto the protein channels located on the cell membrane, setting up an “electrical barricade”. 


The effects of clinically administered anesthesia are similar to that of cocaine. They have similar molecular structure and hence, their pain numbing effects work in a similar fashion.


For surgical procedures which are relatively more intrusive, inhalation is preferred because it targets the entire nervous system. Western medicine started to use a compound called diethyl ether or nitrous oxide (laughing gas for dental procedures). 


Along with inhalation, intravenous anesthesia is administered, it contains chemicals such as propofol (causes unconsciousness) and fentanyl (causes painlessness), this is known as general anesthesia. It functions by preventing different parts of the brain from communicating with each other, which happens when you are awake.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_tTymvDWXk

https://www.healthline.com/health/nitrous-oxide-side-effects

https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/what-is-general-anesthesia#:~:text=General%20anesthesia%20works%20by%20interrupting,what%20happened%20during%20your%20surgery.


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