General anesthesia is, essentially, a medically induced coma, not sleep. Drugs render a patientunresponsive and unconscious. They are normally administered intravenously (IV) or inhaled. Undergeneral anesthesia, the patient is unable to feel pain and may also have amnesia. The drugs will beadministered by an anesthesiologist or nurse anesthetist, a specially trained doctor or nurse who willalso monitor a patient’s vital signs and rate of breathing during the procedure. General anesthetics havebeen widely used in surgery since 1842, when Crawford Long administered diethyl ether to a patientand performed the first painless operation. In this book, we will cover a number of topics, including thepotential side effects of general anesthesia, associated risks and some theories regarding their mode ofaction.
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