Deep Sedation versus General Anesthetic?

[Marcellus]

Mrs M went in for a day op today and was given 'deep sedation'.

Now to our inexpert minds there was no difference to this and a general anesthetic so we wondered what the difference was?

[sinizter]

Could be considered very light general anaesthetic.

The difference is probably to do with how much of the body functions are reduced/suspended and recovery times.

[Hoofy]

vs

'course, typical of me, I'm probably the only person who has asked not to be sedated when having a colonoscopy just so I could see my insides. Those enemas work surprisingly well.

[Ray Luxury-Yacht]

A little O/T, but i've been lucky (!) enough to have had two arthroscopy operations on my knee.

I'd never had a general anesthetic before, and before the first op eveyone said how I'd wake up feeling like ste, sick, and take ages to get over it.

Maybe I was lucky enough to have a good aneasthatist on both occasions, or something, but both times I was waken from the op by a friendly nurse, and I seemed to come round pretty quick each time. Within ten minutes I felt totally awake and back to normal, just like waking in the morning, and within an hour was asking to go home.

They make you wait two hours, so sat around until I was allowed to go. Both times I then just walked out of the hospital with no feeling of illness whatsoever, and just went home and started eating loadsa food like nothing had happened.

These operations aren't long ones, about 90 minutes, so maybe if you're under longer it might be worse. But after the anesthetics I've had so far, I am totally happy and not scared to go under if I ever have to again.

In fact in a wierd way I quite enjoy it. One of the great loves of my life is sleep, so I just reconcile the ops in my head before I go into hospital as a bonus sleeping time!

And it also fascinates me each time when i'm in the pre-op room, and they plug the syringe into my arm, ask if I'm ready, I say yes and they pump the juice into me. Amazing how for maybe less than 5 seconds I get to feel the coldness of the juice go into my arm and up maybe 6 inches in the vein towards my bicep, before passing out so quickly I just don't know anything about it, until I wake up later. Fast acting stuff in hospitals isn't it!!

[The_Doc]

That's the journey through different stages of a General Anaesthetic.

Sedation generally justs drops your conscious level and slows your breathing.

Strictly speaking Anaesthesia has three components
1) Pain relief
2) Muscle paralysis
3) Sleep

Each operation type demands a diffrent balance of the three

[davhill]

I read somewhere that a GA is more like a coma than sleep. Apparently, if you're tired when you're put under, you're no less tired when you come round. Could be apocryphal of course.

[Hoofy]

davhill said:

I read somewhere that a GA is more like a coma than sleep. Apparently, if you're tired when you're put under, you're no less tired when you come round. Could be apocryphal of course.

Was like that for me every time I've been under. A bit annoying since you have to get up at silly o'clock and I find it hard to go to bed early. Still, you're supposed to rest after the op so there's plenty of time to catch up with sleep.

[parapaul]

davhill said:

I read somewhere that a GA is more like a coma than sleep. Apparently, if you're tired when you're put under, you're no less tired when you come round. Could be apocryphal of course.

I went on the slab at midnight, and was wheeled back out again about 5am. I woke up at 7 when the nurses did their rounds and felt like I'd had a full night's sleep.