Talk:General anaesthesia

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 4 September 2019 and 4 December 2019. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Alexxias.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 22:10, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Is
Is it just me, or does this article not include a BASIC DEFINITION of what general anaesthesia is? Something like, "General anaestheisa is the medical practice of rendering a patient unconscious prior to surgery." Or something better than that, preferably by someone who actually knows what they're talking about, as opposed to me. This article just seems to launch right into the very "medicaly" stuff that makes my brain hurt. &mdash;The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.108.72.21 (talk • contribs).
 * "...general anaesthesia is a state of total unconsciousness resulting from anesthetic drugs." That's the definition. To better address this, I changed the generic (and overused) 'Cleanup' tag to a 'Confusing' tag. Deltabeignet 01:05, 26 November 2005 (UTC)
 * That is the definition I just added a few hours ago to the article (before reading the comments here). --WS 04:56, 26 November 2005 (UTC)

Overview
Have fixed the link to GA drugs as being the same and the link further down the page. There was no page behind the URL. It reads better now. John Shannon Talk 8:26, 5th August 2006 (GMT+9)

Longer term effects of anaesthesia, contra-indicators, etc
Might it be worth mentioning some of the contra-indicators for GA in a bit more detail? I underwent GA just over a week and a half ago and (typically) got an offer to go in for another operation in a few days time. I declined on the basis that I suspected multiple GAs in such a short space of time would be bad for me. Do the drugs clear out of your system that quickly? What are the general rules for undergoing GA? Obviously, these rules change depending on clinical necessity.
 * —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.194.2.169 (talk • contribs) 23:28, 24 April 2006

Mortality rate?
Those mortality rate figures seem kinda high. the percentages seem way off for how many surgeries are actually performed. can anyone add to that?
 * —Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.147.54.163 (talk • contribs) 07:50, 11 July 2006


 * Indeed - operative risk for, say, a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm is (I gather) about 90% (being 100% if one does not try to operate) vs 50% if in process of tearing vs under 5% if a routine operation for a merely distended non-tearing aneurysm. But these figures have nothing to do with the risks of GA itself, and all to do with the underlying condition & stability of the patient. I've removed the quite misleading (and uncited) info. David Ruben Talk 11:42, 11 July 2006 (UTC)


 * Around the world that I know off there have been 2 deaths (one in Australia in July, 2006 - huge media coverage), another in California, July, 2006 - R. Grace - no media coverage) that have been caused by GA drugs - or rather an alergic reaction to an anti-nausea agent used in the GA drug process. We need to find out what these anti-nausea drugs are, and determine if there is a process for testing a patient against these drugs, and the other GA drugs, in the days or maybe hours leading up to the GA. John Shannon Talk 8:13, 5th August 2006 (GMT+9)

–Is the mention of anaphylaxis to anti-emetics important enough to be mentioned here? I think not; induction agents, muscle relaxants, and anti-biotics are much more common causes of anaphylaxis during anaesthesia. --Thegasman 11:47, 5 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Is it just me, or does the info in the mortality rate section seem contradictory? It says 5 deaths per million in one place, then goes on to say that people aren't even sure that we're better than 1 death per 100,000, and that data isn't even collected.  The cite for 5 deaths per million says 5 deaths per million "anesthetic administrations" after talking about how anesthesia has gotten safer because of things like local anesthetics.  The way it's used now, in an article on general anesthesia, seems misleading, especially when we have a citation that says that he couldn't possibly know the current numbers for general anesthesia.  I'm going to remove the relevant sentence and rework the section. Meviin (talk) 07:36, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Anaesthesia or Anesthesia?
I think we need a consensus and some consistency here! --Thegasman 11:47, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

- it depends on what part of the world you are from. in Mother England it's anaesthesia

Yes, but for the sake of the article it should be consistent. Also, anaesthetist/anesthesiologist/anesthesia provider. It's confusing to read. As the the title is "General Anaesthesia I propose we should use the British spellings consistently, and mention the American versions in brackets after the first use of each term. Comments? --62.6.139.11 09:37, 7 August 2006 (UTC)


 * Agree - as per WP:MOS, articles should stick with whatever version of English they currently have, and to remain consistant within an article. So "anaesthe-" as root for all terms on this page with initial acknowledgement of alternative spellings. David Ruben Talk 13:28, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

Anesthesia's longterm impact on developing brain cells?
Perhaps this is related to the 24Apr2006 question posed above...

http://whyfiles.org/251anesth_brain/index.php?g=1.txt

"Anesthesia is essential to surgery, but does it kill brain cells?"

Any suggestion about where this kind of research might best be found? 199.214.24.129 21:16, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Anesthesia safety statistics
In the US, up until about 1980 anesthesia was a significant risk, with at least one death per 10,000 times administered. After becoming something of a public scandal, a careful effort was made to understand the causes and improve the results. It is generally believed that anesthesia is now at least ten times safer than it was then.  However, there is some controversy about this.  In the US, the data is not made public (in fact, the data is not even collected), so the truth is uncertain.  The rate for dental anesthesia is reported to be one out of 350,000.

See also: -69.87.200.24 21:14, 28 August 2007 (UTC)
 * http://www.apsf.org/resource_center/newsletter/1995/fall/gravenstein.html

Anaesthesia and sleep
Hello.

I'd like to know if general anaesthesia also causes the person to sleep. For example, suppose a person is suffering from insomnia, if they get knocked out by a mixture of these drugs, would they feel better once they regain consciousness (or at the very least would that be better than not sleeping at all)? Can you experience REM sleep during general anaesthesia? 193.217.54.222 (talk) 09:11, 13 December 2007 (UTC)

no you are not asleep in the sence if your were tired before the anaesetheic then you will be after as well —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.104.128.133 (talk) 08:50, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

Stages?
The "Stages of anaesthesia" section lists a 4-stage progression, with an intro that notes that this progression "is largely replaced by the 3 stage classification.", but I see no other mention or link indicating what that means. DMacks (talk) 21:23, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

Side effects and risks
was wondering if you could add some infromation about the drugs general side effects I know many differnt ones are used but just the general side effects and porblem that this could cause if you have an ADVERSE reaction to any of the durgs administered —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.104.128.133 (talk) 08:42, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

not the stages any reactions you may get from the drugs eg Increase or decrease in blood pressure or risk of heart attack etc??? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.104.128.133 (talk) 08:47, 27 May 2008 (UTC)

Not B Class
As a consultant anaesthetist I reckon I know a thing or two about this topic. I last contributed to this article about 2 years ago, when it seemed a reasonable overview of the topic of general anaesthesia, at least in line with modern medical texts. I came back to see what changes have occured since then, and am frankly shocked. This article is no longer worthy of an encyclopedia, and I would now rate it as a stub - definately not a B. It appears that most of the useful information has been deleted, leaving an article with a beginning and an ending, but no middle. A few points 1. What is the relevence of Viagra? It is not an issue of importance enough to merit a mention. This is not Vogue magazine! 2. Stages of anaesthesia are only of historical interest. It could be a topic of it's own for those interested, but does not belong here. 3. What happened to the processes of induction, maintenance, and recovery from anaesthesia? This is the core of the topic and isn't even mentioned!

To be perfectly honest the best way forward seems to be deletion and start again. Any takers? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Thegasman (talk • contribs) 20:04, 12 August 2008 (UTC)


 * Well, it's certainly not a stub, because it has lots of content. It might be poorly written, poorly organized, and/or poorly/mis-focused though:( The full edit history is available (click the "history" at the top of the page) so you can see who added what cruft and removed what worthy material. To start us off, can you point to a specific revision back before the page went down-hill? DMacks (talk) 20:17, 12 August 2008 (UTC)


 * agree with most points, but the stages of anaesthesia remain highly relevant for gas induction of anaesthesia (in Australia, the norm for elective, low risk anaesthesia in children). Whyso (talk) 03:06, 5 April 2009 (UTC)

OK, I've looked back through the edits. Things seemed to go badly wrong with edit of 18:37 14th November 2007. I note a reference to someone's sexual orientation was added at this edit, suggesting it was maybe just vandalism ;-) The last useable edit therefore seems to be 7:33 5th November 2007. Can we revert to that? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Thegasman (talk • contribs) 19:54, 14 August 2008 (UTC)

Mortality Rate Contradiction/Confusing
Under the Mortality Rate section, it first makes the statement that the mortality rate reported by a source is 3-5x per every million procedures of anesthesia, however later on when referring to dental anesthesia, the morality rate is reported to be once every 350K, which should be significantly less than surgical type anesthesia, but the numbers don't add up, which is confusing. Seems like a pitfall of having two different sources, since the dental source claims that the dental kind is significantly safer, yet this Wikipedia article doesnt reflect that.

article reassessment, begin major overhaul
I have reassessed this article as Start class, mainly because it has few if any reliable sources. I intend to begin working on it soon. It is greatly in need of attention from expert editors and any other interested editors. DiverDave (talk) 13:14, 8 September 2010 (UTC)

No definition is given, and no discussion of the conflicting definitions
This article does not give a definition of the term "general anesthesia", which is a problem. In my experience there are multiple conflicting definitions of "general anesthesia" in use in different countries, specialties, and regions. For instance, I have met doctors who believe it is not general anesthesia if the patient is not intubated and not given paralytics. There is a gray area between "procedural sedation" and "general anesthesia". If the patient is somewhat conscious and able to respond to commands, it is clearly procedural sedation. If the patient is mechanically ventilated and given paralytics, it is clearly general anesthesia. Everything in between is a gray area, and some doctors invent euphemisms such as "heavy sedation" to minimize the perceived severity of the surgery (or "procedure") which is planned. Fluoborate (talk) 10:27, 21 December 2016 (UTC)

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Is surgery the major factor for general anaesthesia?
The introduction part refers to: "It is carried out to allow medical procedures ..." But if surgery is the overwhelming majority of the reasons to apply anaesthesia I'd suggest to state that. Including some other procedures to think about for which anaesthesia is applied. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Miss Zeyneb (talk • contribs) 20:52, 19 October 2019 (UTC)

References-- Removing Maintenance Tag
I have added seven sources to the short section "Preanaesthetic evaluation." Is this sufficient to remove the maintenance tag? Alexxias (talk) 16:22, 18 November 2019 (UTC)

"Postoperative Care" Section
I revised this section to better reflect procedures followed in the postoperative care unit, including drugs used, vital signs monitored, etc. I also discussed some of the major side effects that would be managed immediately after general anaesthesia. Many of the same things that were previously mentioned are rephrased, but better organized and cited. Are there any objections to my changing the section? Alexxias (talk) 15:48, 20 November 2019 (UTC)

Proposal: Merge with page General anaesthetic?
Topics seem to be relatively similar in both pages; I'm proposing a merge of the two pages into one. Seems like a logical thing to do. Discussion? BluePankow  ✉  16:25, 17 July 2020 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: WikiProject Medicine Fall 2022 UCF COM
— Assignment last updated by Sudokologist (talk) 17:25, 27 October 2022 (UTC)

I am currently a 4th medical student working on improve medically relevant pages and articles on Wikipedia. Anesthesiology is an evolving field with many innovations occurring daily. The first time many people heard of general anesthesia is often right before their procedures, and googling about it is likely the first thing to do. Wikipedia is a common resource for many non-medical people, and it is important to ensure patients have the most accurate and relevant information. This article is currently graded a C – class on the quality scale with a High on the importance scale. General anesthesia is the foundation for the field of anesthesiology and crucial for the field of surgery. I hope to improve this article over the course of the next few weeks. I am to update this topic with quality and current information from reputable resources and medical databases.

Introduction: The biggest issue currently is that the definition of general anesthesia is not included. There is a gray area between conscious sedation and general anesthesia, and I hope to clear the misconception.

History: I hope to provide more details on the more recent history of general anesthesia. Also, it appears that most of the text in this section does not have any citation attribute to it, and I hope to improve that.

Purpose: This section is currently very barebone and needs some work. I plan to expand the description for each usage of general anesthesia. Preanesthetic evaluation: I plan to expand the section on airway evaluation, including several assessment methods such as the Mallampati score and thyroid mental distance.

Biochemical mechanism of action: This section needs to be updated. Although the exact biochemical mechanism of action for general anesthesia is not clear, there has been much recent research that brought us closer to the answer. I plan to explore more on this topic and update this section with current research and consensus.

Induction: This section is well organized with much detailed information. However, many parts need citation and resource verification. I also hope to update it on some of the monitoring and neuromuscular blockade reversal agents.

Maintenance: this section currently lacks citations to any resource. I hope to add updates to information on the maintenance of anesthesia and the verification of citations.

Postoperative care: overall, well organized with good citations. I hope to improve this section by adding more current guidelines for postoperative care. For example, the ERAS protocol, etc. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sudokologist (talk • contribs) 18:48, 27 October 2022 (UTC)

General anaesthesia
What is general anaesthesia explain clearly 117.221.222.199 (talk) 04:30, 28 January 2023 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: STS 1010
— Assignment last updated by Jessicacariello (talk) 14:56, 14 February 2023 (UTC)