As people are scared of anesthesia with myths attached to their administration in patients, experts of the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) have busted these myths.
Dr Jyotsna Wig of PGI said, “In general, the risk of serious complications or death during anesthesia is about the same as the risk when driving a vehicle or walking on the busy road. Because you drive or walk every day, you may not consider these activities particularly risky. However, because you rarely undergo an anesthetic you may find yourself anxious before surgery.”
A patient is referred to an anesthesiologist whenever a surgery is planned. However for better administration of anesthesia a patient should tell in detail about the drugs they are taking, allergic predisposition, previous surgeries, blood transfusions etc. This information is recorded in a Pre-Anesthesia Check up (PAC) card which is a useful tool to chalk out the plan of anesthesia. Anesthesiologist also prescribes some medications to keep a patient calm, before and during surgery.
On an average 17000 new and follow up patients are referred each year by surgical departments to Pre-anesthesia clinic in PGIMER. This clinic runs for 6 days a week. “It is extremely unusual for healthy patients to have serious complications because of anesthesia. But, few health problems especially when they are not under control increase the risk of anesthesia. These include lung diseases, heart ailments kidney problems, diabetes, and obesity,” said Dr SK Malhotra of PGI.
Chronic smokers and alcoholics also become high risk patients. Drug addicts also suffer complications during the administration of anesthesia doses. However, if a patient has any of these health problems it should be informed to the anesthesiologist so that preparation are made for extra drugs and monitoring devices. “Anesthesia consists of as many as 15 different medications and a patient may be allergic to one of the medications used as part of anesthesia. Incidents of allergy to anesthetic agents is 1.3 per 100 million patients undergoing general anesthesia,” said Dr Puneet Khanna of PGI.