General Anesthesia Side Effects and Complications
hAs a board, certified ,anesthesiologist, I’ve walked ,hundreds, if not thousands, of patients through ,the process of ,anesthesia, explaining ,to them,ow it works and what the possible side-effects and complications can be. Here, I will share with you what I tell my patients. I’ll give you the run-down on what to expect and how to prevent some potentially unpleasant after effects.
Before going on, though, it might be helpful to distinguish a "side effect" from a "complication." A side-effect is an annoying and perhaps unpleasant outcome that accompanies the desired effect of a treatment. However, side-effects typically do not cause any lasting harm. For instance, weight gain is a side-effect of certain medications. Once you go off the medication, the weight gain typically goes away.
A complication, on the other hand, is an undesirable outcome of a treatment that causes harm to the patient. Complications are sometimes avoidable and sometimes unavoidable, depending on any pre-existing conditions and other factors.
General anesthesia is the most frequently used anesthesia in surgery. General anesthesia puts you into a deep sleep so that you will not feel pain during surgery nor have any awareness of what’s happening. Since general anesthesia involves the use of IV and inhaled medicines to induce and maintain an unconscious, it is not surprising that it is associated with side effects, and less commonly, complications. Given the significant changes induced by these powerful medications, though, the safety record of general anesthesia is particularly impressive.
Side effects though, often cannot be avoided with general anesthesia and most people experience one or more of the most common anesthesia side effects
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