What are the dangers of general anesthesia for children?

When performing surgery, in order to avoid causing pain to the patient, medicine will use anesthesia. There are two main methods, namely general anesthesia and local anesthesia. The specific anesthesia to be chosen must also take into account many factors such as the size of the operation and the site of the operation. So what impact might it have if a child chooses general anesthesia?

What are the dangers of general anesthesia for children?

Many parents of babies hear in outpatient clinics that their babies need surgery, and that they need general anesthesia. Their first question is: "Doctor," is general anesthesia dangerous? Will anesthesia affect children's intelligence? Will they become stupider every time they are anesthetized? In response to parents’ questions, today the editor invited Dr. Wang Hui, deputy chief physician of the Anesthesiology Department of Chaoyang Hospital, to talk to everyone about general anesthesia.

General anesthesia is the abbreviation of general anesthesia, which means that the anesthetic is inhaled through the respiratory tract, or injected into the body through the vein or muscle, which makes the patient's pain disappear, muscles relax, and reflex activity weakened. This inhibitory state is controllable and reversible. During the operation, the anesthesiologist must adjust the dosage of anesthetics according to the patient's condition and monitoring of various vital signs. At the end of the operation, the anesthetics will gradually be metabolized and disappear, and the child will slowly wake up.

Anesthesia Classification

Anesthesia is the use of drugs or other methods to temporarily make the patient lose sensation in the whole body or part of the body so that the operation can proceed smoothly. It can be roughly divided into several categories: epidural anesthesia and subarachnoid block (commonly known as "semi-anesthesia"); regional nerve block, also known as "blockade"; and the general anesthesia which is commonly used now. Due to the development of modern medicine and related disciplines, the scope of surgery has been continuously expanded, and many areas that were originally restricted from surgery can now be successfully operated on. This has promoted the development of anesthesia, especially general anesthesia. General anesthesia is a large category of anesthesia. It is a general anesthetic that acts on the central nervous system, causing it to be reversibly inhibited, thereby causing the patient's consciousness, sensation, and especially pain to disappear, making it easier to perform surgical operations. The primary requirements of general anesthesia are safety and painlessness. Depending on the scope of the operation, the muscles in the surgical area should be relaxed to facilitate the operation. This type of anesthesia can allow patients undergoing even the most painful surgery to fall asleep on the operating table, and not only that, they can also wake up quietly after the operation.

More than 100 years ago, surgery, even for appendicitis, which can be performed by junior doctors today, was tantamount to gambling with life for doctors and patients at that time. The atmosphere of early operating rooms is completely different from the quiet and meticulous operations under shadowless lamps today. Amid the flashing of swords and the shadow of sabers, there were the patients' miserable wails and blood all over the ground. Both the surgery and anesthesia were extremely primitive. The development and progress of surgery and anesthesia in the past 50 years have made surgery a routine medical treatment that most people can tolerate, and major operations such as various organ transplants, cardiothoracic surgery, and neurosurgery can be carried out safely.