General Anesthesia Side Effects

The fact that general anesthesia affects the entire body implies that the chances of its side effects are significantly higher compared to the side effects of local or regional anesthesia.

The common risks associated with this process may range from something as simple as headache or sore throat, to something much more severe, such as nerve damage and organ failure, which may eventually result in death. The good news though, is that most of its side effects are minor and thus, can be managed easily.

General anesthesia is the state of unconsciousness induced upon an individual with the help of certain anesthetic drugs while performing a range of medical and surgical procedures.

Administration of these drugs during the surgery ensures that the person loses sensation of the entire body and thus, undergoes these painful procedures without any trouble. The overall procedure involved here is quite sophisticated and involves a range of activities, right from preanaesthetic assessments to postoperative pain relief.

The range of side effects associated with general anesthesia rarely occur in healthy individuals. Their occurrence is determined by several factors, including which surgery is performed, type of anesthetic drug administered, individual's tolerance to the drug, duration of the surgery, etc.

Anesthetic drugs stop relaying messages from the nerves to the brain and hence, the individual experiences loss of sensation. This hindrance in the transfer of messages can result in a series of side effects on the body, including headache, sore throat, dizziness, etc.

The entire body, including the brain of the individual, is affected by anesthetic drugs administered to the individual. As a result of this, the individual can experience a slight to moderate headache after the surgery. At times, this headache is accompanied by dizziness and shivering. The person is barred from eating or drinking anything for a few hours before the surgery which, in turn, causes dryness in the mouth and eventually results in sore throat.

The individual is also bound to feel sick and nauseous, as the digestion process in brought to a halt. The fact that the transmission of messages to the brain is hampered may also result in vision problems, such as blurred vision and double vision, for sometime after the surgery. The individual might also complain of muscle pain and tiredness, depending on what surgery he was subjected to and the duration of the surgery. In rare cases, the individual may also be subjected to hallucination.

Not every one who is administered general anesthetic drugs should experience these side effects. An individual may experience a range of side effects mentioned here, while others may experience just one or two of them. People with underlying medical conditions are most vulnerable to the risks of general anesthesia, while a healthy individual is less likely to experience any such side effects or complications of the same.

At times, the individual may suffer from nerve damage, organ failure, aspiration, or suffocation, which may result in his death. The mortality rate for general anesthesia is as low as about three to five deaths per million cases. In most of these cases, death is caused due to some complication related to a preexisting medical condition.