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Excel Anaesthesia and Pain Management
Team
About anaesthesia
The word
anaesthesia is coined from two Greek
words: "an" meaning "without" and
"aesthesis" meaning "sensation". There
are various types of anaesthesia.
Throughout
their lives, most people will undergo
anaesthesia either during the birth of
their baby or for a surgical
procedure, which could range from
relatively short, simple surgery on a
day-stay basis through to major
surgery requiring complex, rapid
decisions to keep them safe. Many of
today’s operations are made possible
as a result of developments in
anaesthesia and training of specialist
anaesthetists.
Patients
having anaesthesia will have an
anaesthetist with them all the way
from the preoperative assessment of
their medical conditions and planning
of their medical care, to closely
monitoring their health and wellbeing
throughout their procedure to ensure a
smooth and comfortable recovery.
Relief of
pain and suffering is central to the
practice of anaesthesia. Despite an
increase in the complexity of surgical
operations, modern anaesthesia is
relatively safe due to high standards
of training that emphasise quality and
safety. In addition, there have been
improvements in drugs and equipment.
Increased support for research to
improve anaesthesia has resulted in
Australia and New Zealand having one
of the best patient safety records in
the world.
What is anaesthesia?
Anaesthesia refers to the practice of
administering medications either by
injection or by inhalation (breathing
in) that produce a state of
unconsciousness that eliminates all
sensations including the feeling of
pain (analgesia) and other unpleasant
sensations, which allows medical and
surgical procedures to be undertaken
without causing undue distress or
discomfort.
Types of anaesthetic given
Procedural sedation
Procedural
sedation is used for procedures where
general anaesthesia is not required
and allows patients to tolerate
procedures that would otherwise be
uncomfortable or painful. It may be
associated with a lack of memory of
any distressing events.
Conscious sedation
Conscious
sedation is defined as a
medication-induced state that reduces
the patient’s level of consciousness
during which the patient can respond
purposefully to verbal commands or
light stimulation by touch.
Analgesia
Analgesia
is the reduction or elimination of the
patient experiencing pain by
medications that act locally, such as
local anaesthetics (which interfere
with nerve conduction) or generally,
such as opioid medications (which
decrease the patient’s experience of
pain in the central nervous system).
Regional anaesthesia
Regional
anaesthesia is an umbrella term used
to describe nerve blocks, epidural
blocks pain relief and having a baby
and spinal blocks. Regional
anaesthesia involves the injection of
local anaesthetic in the vicinity of
major nerve bundles supplying body
areas, such as the thigh, ankle,
forearm, hand or shoulder.
Regional
anaesthesia is sometimes achieved by
using a nerve-locating device, such as
a nerve stimulator, or by using
ultrasound, which is a painless
procedure used to demonstrate internal
body structures using sound waves to
create an image. These devices help to
locate the selected nerve(s) so that
local anaesthetics can be delivered
with improved accuracy.
Regional
anaesthesia may be used on its own or
combined with general anaesthesia.
Once local
anaesthetic is injected in the desired
region, patients may experience
numbness and tingling in the area
supplied by the nerves and it may
become difficult or impossible to move
that part of the body.
General anaesthesia
General
anaesthesia produces a drug-induced
state where the patient will not
respond to any stimuli, including
pain. It may be associated with
changes in breathing and circulation.
What is an anaesthetist?
Specialist
anaesthetists are fully qualified
medical doctors who hold a degree in
medicine and spend at least two years
working in the hospital system before
completing a further five years (or
equivalent) of accredited training in
anaesthesia culminating in being
awarded a diploma of fellowship of the
Australian and New Zealand College of
Anaesthetists (ANZCA), which can be
recognised by the initials FANZCA
after their name.
Anaesthetists provide a wide range of
medical services and are part of
multidisciplinary teams providing
health care to patients.
Anaesthetists have a direct role in
assessing patients before operations.
They play an important and primary
role in caring for the patient before,
during and after surgery. They are
trained in all forms of anaesthesia.
Anaesthetists play a pivotal role in
resuscitating acutely unwell patients,
including trauma victims, and assist
with the management of patients
suffering from acute or chronic pain,
as well as providing pain relief for
women in labour.
Clinical
anaesthesia is built on the knowledge
of physiology (how the body works) and
pharmacology (how medications work in
the body). A thorough understanding is
required about the ways in which the
body responds to anaesthesia and
surgery, and how these physiological
responses are affected and altered by
the patient’s health. Anaesthetists
must have an extensive knowledge of
medicine and surgery as an
understanding of the basic sciences.
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