The doctor you went to due to any health problem said that you need to have surgery as a result of some examinations. When you asked, “Will I have pain during the operation”, you got the answer “no, I will perform the operation under general anesthesia, you will not hear anything” and suddenly you shuddered, a strange fear gripped you: “what if I sleep or not wake up”.
After all, news about “narcosis victims” on television and in the newspapers were not uncommon. At that moment, you were shy and unable to talk to your doctor about your concerns. What happened so far has happened to many people and they have experienced the operation process with these fears. Under appropriate conditions, the anesthesia carefully administered by a competent anesthesiologist will ensure your safety and comfort during the operation, and knowing that you have an operation under these conditions will allow you to experience this process without worry.
Here are some questions you might be wondering about your anesthesia and anesthesiologist:
What is Anesthesia?
Anesthesiology is the name of the branch of science that includes a series of medical applications developed to ensure that the patient does not feel pain, comfort and tolerance to the intervention during the surgery, including before and after the operation.
Your anesthesiologist is a person who graduated from the Faculty of Medicine, received four years of specialization training in this branch, can use high-level medical technology, and with this knowledge and skill, allows you to safely pass the surgical process and regain your health.
Anesthesia, as a word, means “numbness, insensitivity”. Therefore, surgeries are painless and unremembered procedures for the patient. However, in order for you to be able to operate safely, the removal of the sensation is necessary but not sufficient. During the surgery, your vital functions such as breathing and circulation are also kept under control, and moreover, your anesthesiologist is your protector in all respects.
Operations have been performed with anesthesia for about 150 years and the development of surgical techniques has been possible with the developments in anesthesiology.
Your anesthesiologist will examine you before the surgery and decide with you the most appropriate anesthesia method for the surgery to be performed.
How many types of Anesthesia are there?
1. General Anesthesia:
If the patient is completely unconscious under anesthesia, it is called “General Anesthesia”. Many drugs are used for general anesthesia. These are drugs given to the vein, as well as gases used with oxygen. The necessary drugs are selected according to the characteristics of each patient. Ether, which was widely used in the past and identified with anesthesia, has not been used in recent years; has left its place to other drugs developed with modern medical technology that give much better results.
2. Regional Anesthesia:
Part of the body; (arm, leg, chest, etc.) anesthetizing by injection is called “Regional Anesthesia”. There are varieties such as spinal, epidural and nerve block.
3. Local Anesthesia:
In minor surgical interventions, only the part of the intervention is anesthetized. Your doctor who will perform the surgery can perform the numbing procedure, but your anesthesiologist will still be with you when your vital functions need to be monitored or sedated.
Your anesthesiologist and you…
Usually, when the anesthetist is working, the patient does not know what he is doing and how he is helping himself because he is asleep. It is always with you, including before and after the operation.
Before surgery:
- Examines your health. He will visit you in your room, tell you what to do and answer your questions.
- He recommends the examination, treatment and care he wants to be done.
- He/she will make you take the necessary drugs before anesthesia.
- According to the results of the examinations and your disease, it chooses the most appropriate anesthesia method for you.
During the surgery:
Gives you the necessary medicines to prevent you from feeling pain during the surgery, checks the regular functioning of your heart and lungs, makes the necessary treatments for these and other organs to work well, serum, blood and gives other drugs.
You are unaware of all these works that your anesthetist does to make the surgeon’s job easier and to keep you alive in surgery!
Your anesthetist is with you throughout the operation and is your closest protector, the keeper of your entire being. With your anesthesiologist at your head, your surgeon knows that your care is in safe hands and gives his full attention to his own work.
After surgery:
The anesthetist is in charge of not only putting you to sleep, but also waking you up. Another important job of his is to make preparations for the necessary care and treatments and have them applied so that you can get rid of the effects of the drugs you take during the surgery, not feel pain after the surgery, and stay healthy. In recent years, post-operative pain is relieved by an anesthetist with a method under your control (patient-controlled analgesia).
All these show that anesthesia, which is administered by people with sufficient knowledge, under appropriate conditions, is an extremely safe practice that will ensure your comfort during the operation, and more importantly, your tolerance for the operation.
Anesthesiologist outside the operating room…
Anesthesiology is a more comprehensive branch of medicine than is thought. Today, anesthesiologists have many fields of work outside the operating room. “Anesthesiology and Reanimation Specialist” is written on the diploma of the anesthesiologist. Animation is a term that is frequently used in the sense of “animation”, especially in holiday villages. Reanimation, on the other hand, means “reanimation”, that is, all efforts to ensure survival until the cause disappears, by applying basic and advanced life support to patients whose life has been interrupted for any reason. This approach formed the basis of Intensive Care Units, which brought many people back to life. Intensive Care Units are under the management of anesthesiologist doctors due to their experience in following the patients in surgery intensively.
In recent years, Algology Department has developed rapidly in modern medicine and has reached its current position. Everyone has complained of severe pain at some point in their life. Therefore, the history of pain is as old as human beings. Pain, which was seen as a sign of disease in the past – especially chronic pain is now accepted as a disease in its own right. Pain due to diseases can disappear with the treatment of that disease. However, there are some chronic pain syndromes, the cause of which is not clear, and sometimes the cause cannot be eliminated, in such cases the efforts are only aimed at providing the person with a pain-free life. In the Pain Treatment Center, the evaluation, diagnosis and appropriate treatment of patients with chronic pain should be done with a multidisciplinary approach, and treatments should be applied with protocols based on scientific foundations.
Anesthesiologist doctors take an active and primary role in this field, as well, due to their experience in relieving pain during surgery. With many developed methods, it is possible to control acute pain after surgery, painless delivery and treatment of chronic pain that cannot be relieved.
