What are the effects of general anesthesia on children?

Anesthesia is a worrying thing for a person, because in the eyes of most people, anesthesia requires injecting drugs into the body to paralyze the nerves through drugs to achieve the effect of anesthesia. Children will not make decisions easily in normal times, because general anesthesia will have a certain impact on children's intelligence and physical development, and they need to pay attention to it in normal times.

Why can't surgery be performed under local anesthesia?

For most children, especially infants, it is difficult to complete a surgery safely without general anesthesia. It is impossible for most children to complete the operation quietly and cooperatively while being awake. Inappropriate actions such as making noise and moving during the operation not only increase the difficulty of the operation, but also increase the risk of the operation.

At the same time, when the operation is performed without local anesthesia, the operation itself is painful and will cause your child to feel fear. In addition, some preparations and operations before the operation will also cause your child to have some inexplicable fear and fail to cooperate well with the operation. You can imagine the serious injuries and consequences that could result from inappropriate movement during surgery.

Is it possible to use the simplest and smallest amount of anesthesia possible, or just some sedatives?

In fact, this method is often less safe than general anesthesia. This method may be effective for certain clinical examinations, such as some operations that do not cause pain but may be somewhat frightening, such as CT scans, MRI scans, etc. But for most surgeries, this approach would be more dangerous.

The most dangerous stage of anesthesia is when anesthesia begins and when the anesthesia is relatively light near the end of the operation. This is like an airplane flying, which is often more dangerous during takeoff and landing. Therefore, the induction stage at the beginning of anesthesia and the awakening stage at the end of anesthesia, that is, the stage when anesthesia is relatively light, are the times when anesthesia operation is most difficult. The relatively deep stage of anesthesia is a stage where generally no problems occur. This is like an airplane flying, the cruising stage is relatively safe. Requiring anesthesiologists to use the minimum amount of anesthetic is equivalent to asking pilots to maintain the aircraft at a very low altitude, such as flying over the treetops, which is more dangerous.

Who will give my child anesthesia? Will I be seen before surgery?

The doctor who gives your child anesthesia will be a qualified doctor who has undergone rigorous training and certification, and will usually have one or two assistants. At the same time, doctors who generally give anesthesia to infants will also undergo special pediatric training and can be anesthesiologists who can specialize in anesthesia for infants. During the operation, the anesthesiologist will cooperate well with the surgeon to complete the operation together.

Before your surgery, your anesthesiologist will meet with you and tell you about your anesthesia.

Can a child die from anesthesia accidents?

It is possible and has happened, but it is very rare, especially in healthy children. This situation mostly occurs in cases of complex conditions or major surgeries. Thousands of general anesthesia surgeries are performed every year in countries around the world and most are completed smoothly. The rate of anesthesia accidents is about 1/300,000. This ratio is relatively low. For example, the annual death rate due to penicillin injection is 1/80,000. In the United States, the probability of death due to traffic accidents is 1/6500! Therefore, the probability of such accidents is relatively low. If it occurs, there are usually special reasons.