Often patients are afraid that they might say or do things when they are unconscious that would embarrass them. You should be reassured that while you are unconscious you cannot talk or move and hospital and clinic staff are professionals trained to treat patients with dignity and respect.
If you're wondering what's going on, it's called disinhibition: a temporary loss of inhibitions caused by an outside stimuli. “They get disinhibition,” said anesthesiologist Dr. Josh Ferguson. “Like if you were to drink alcohol or some other medication, but this makes them forget that they're saying that.”
Consciousness is in a dream-like state during anaesthesia
All in all, the findings indicate that consciousness is not necessarily fully lost during anaesthesia, even though the person is no longer reacting to their environment. However, dream-like experiences and thoughts might still float in consciousness.
You will probably stay awake, but may not be able to speak. Conscious sedation lets you recover quickly and return to your everyday activities soon after your procedure.
Before surgery, you will meet with the physician anesthesiologist or nurse anesthetist. The anesthesiologist will review your medical condition and history to plan the appropriate anesthetic for surgery.
Anesthesia won't make you confess your deepest secrets
It's normal to feel relaxed while receiving anesthesia, but most people don't say anything unusual. Rest assured, even if you do say something you wouldn't normally say while you are under sedation, Dr. Meisinger says, “it's always kept within the operating room.
If you're having general anesthesia, an anesthesiologist will give you medications that make you lose consciousness. After the surgery is complete, he or she will reverse the medication so that you regain consciousness — but you won't be wide awake right away.
Nursing and other medical staff usually talk to sedated people and tell them what is happening as they may be able to hear even if they can't respond. Some people had only vague memories whilst under sedation. They'd heard voices but couldn't remember the conversations or the people involved.
General anesthesia drugs were shown to induce unconsciousness by activating a tiny cluster of cells at the base of the brain called the supraoptic nucleus (shown in red), while the rest of the brain remains in a mostly inactive state (shown in blue).
Patients under sedation can probably hear things but we don't know for sure. This will depend on how much sedation they have been given or whether they have an injury to their brain. We know from asking people when they wake up that they sometimes remember things that were said to them when they were sedated.
Anesthetic drugs cause brain circuits to change their oscillation patterns in particular ways, thereby preventing neurons in different brain regions from communicating with each other. The result is a loss of consciousness—an unnatural state that he compares to a “reversible coma”—that differs from sleep.
Your anaesthetist will want to see if you have an increased risk for damage to teeth before the anaesthetic starts. This is more likely in people with teeth in poor condition or in people with dental work such as crowns or bridges.
Simultaneous measurement of neural rhythms and spikes across five brain areas reveals how propofol induces unconsciousness.
General anesthesia looks more like a coma—a reversible coma.” You lose awareness and the ability to feel pain, form memories and move. Once you've become unconscious, the anesthesiologist uses monitors and medications to keep you that way.
Meanwhile in the operating room the patient is being put on a monitor, given oxygen and once stable, sedated and intubated. The patient is then put on a ventilator until the end of the surgery. They are monitored closely by anesthesia throughout the case.
Among the things the anesthesiologist measures or observes, and uses to guide the type and amount of anesthetic given are: heart rate and rhythm, blood pressure, breathing rate or pattern, oxygen and carbon dioxide levels, and exhaled anesthetic concentration.
After a surgical procedure where general anesthesia was administered, most people will wake up in the recovery room instantly after the procedure. However, they may remain groggy for a few hours afterward. The person's body might take up to a week to recover from the medicines from his or her system.
The anaesthetic should take effect very quickly. You'll start feeling lightheaded, before becoming unconscious within a minute or so. The anaesthetist will stay with you throughout the procedure. They'll make sure you continue to receive the anaesthetic and that you stay in a controlled state of unconsciousness.
General anesthesia brings on a sleep-like state with the use of a combination of medicines. The medicines, known as anesthetics, are given before and during surgery or other medical procedures. General anesthesia usually uses a combination of intravenous medicines and inhaled gasses.
This will depend on how much sedation they have been given or any injury to their brain that they may have. If they can hear you, they are unable to speak if they have a breathing tube in their mouth. We know from asking awake patients that they remember things that were said to them when they were sedated.
With minimal and moderate sedation, you feel comfortable, sleepy and relaxed. You may drift off to sleep at times, but will be easy to wake. With general anaesthesia, you are completely unaware and unconscious during the procedure. Deep sedation is between the two.
Some patients are unable to describe recollections, and approximately 5% have little or no recollection of real events that occurred during their stay in the ICU but are able to remember a wide variety of dreams, hallucinations, and nightmares.
General Anesthesia
This type of anesthesia may inhibit or stop your breathing and may requires intubation (placement of a breathing tube), or placement of an airway device to assist with breathing.
Every patient's length of stay in the PACU is different, but on average it is usually one to three hours. This depends on factors such as type of surgery, the patient's response to surgery and anesthesia, and medical history. Most patients remember very little regarding their recovery room experience.