5 ms·

Complete medical newbie here... What is wrong with anaesthesia?

d33 10y ago
The risk of any side effects, especially in a yet-to-fully-develop human? I wouldn't be surprised if the list included coma because someone got the dosage wrong. It's just not worth the risk at that point. (Disclaimer: I have nothing to do with medicine)
- saiya-jin 10y ago
  You are mixing local anesthesia with complete pass-out by using NO2 or similar for surgeries (which has 1:10000 mortality ratio if I recall correctly) and side effects. Local anesthesia can be even in form of spray instead of injection, depends on severity. Heck, once I tried to chew coca leaves and that got me pretty numb in my mouth for quite some time, couldn't articulate properly etc. It's still chemistry put into the body messing up with pain signaling, but I wouldn't worry that much about it (or you'll go crazy with all possible things that could harm a kid one way or the other)
  - rscho 10y ago
    PLEASE do not state fear-mongering numbers without source, especially about medicine! Anesthesia is safer than traveling by plane, nowadays. According to a 10 sec googling, the mortality is now sub 10/million/year, and that's including high-risk populations. source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2697561/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2697561/
    - deleted 10y ago
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    - deleted 10y ago
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    - maxerickson 10y ago
      US commercial airlines haven't had a fatal accident since 2009. I think that's a better apple than 'traveling by plane'.
    - dagw 10y ago
      But even those numbers show that the death rate for kids aged 0-4 is significantly higher[1] than for older kids and young adults. I know that doctors on the whole really try to avoid having to put kids under for just this reason. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2697561/figure/F3/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2697561/figure/...
      - rscho 10y ago
        The common guideline is 6 mo and 2 yo. Those ages are commonly viewed as cutoffs for risk levels. In our hospital for example, the presence of an attending will be required for induction/waking up of anesthesia under 2 years old. Under 6 months, the risk of respiratory complication is far greater, which is why surgery is withheld until that age, except in emergencies.
    - saiya-jin 10y ago
      PLEASE understand the meaning of "if I recall correctly". I was wrong. Not everybody is attempting to write a post in an online forum about in form or article for Nature or Science, backchecking every statement in every sentence. Jeez
      - rscho 10y ago
        I do understand. It's not a problem for me. But look at all the terrorized people commenting on this story. They already think anesthesia means death to the kids, or something. You are not helping them.
- pc86 10y ago
  > I have nothing to do with medicine And yet your response is just supposition ("I wouldn't be surprised if..."). Anesthesia is fine.
rscho 10y ago
The classic risk in dental procedures is the dentist using a lidocaine-adrenalin mix, which when injected into a vessel (by mistake), will make your heart race, your blood pressure skyrocket, and provoke a general sense of unease/impending doom. It is also the main reason why many people say they are "allergic" to anesthesia. In fact, the complication profile of amide-class local anesthetics is very safe. As for the interaction of anesthesia with development, scientific evidence is scarce and anesthesia alone does not seem to have such a great impact on the long term. Anyway, I would be far more worried about hypnotic drugs than local anesthetics in that regard.
- throwanem 10y ago
  > a lidocaine-adrenalin mix, which when injected into a vessel (by mistake), will make your heart race, your blood pressure skyrocket, and provoke a general sense of unease/impending doom Wait, that's not supposed to happen? I pretty much just figured oh well, it's epi, what are you gonna do.
- masklinn 10y ago
  > The classic risk in dental procedures is the dentist using a lidocaine-adrenalin mix, which when injected into a vessel (by mistake), will make your heart race, your blood pressure skyrocket, and provoke a general sense of unease/impending doom. And there's a fun side-effect, or at least I had that: body learns to completely blow up under stress. Before I went through that I had very low stress impact (psychological stress had no physical impact), since then stressful situations almost lock me up (heart racing, muscles contracting, …). It's really quite annoying.
- viewer5 10y ago
  > and provoke a general sense of unease/impending doom Oh shit I thought I was just weird. Do you have any more information on that? I felt that when I was getting a crown put in, it was horrifying, "impending doom" is the perfect description. It also happened the (one) time I donated blood, though I don't remember being given any injections or anything though; but I felt that EXACT same "impending doom" sensation; at the time I thought basically "well this is the end, they accidentally took too much blood and I'm going to die now". I felt cold to the core and started sweating horribly and spontaneously, just like the time at the dentist.

d33 10y ago

The risk of any side effects, especially in a yet-to-fully-develop human? I wouldn't be surprised if the list included coma because someone got the dosage wrong. It's just not worth the risk at that point. (Disclaimer: I have nothing to do with medicine)

saiya-jin 10y ago
You are mixing local anesthesia with complete pass-out by using NO2 or similar for surgeries (which has 1:10000 mortality ratio if I recall correctly) and side effects. Local anesthesia can be even in form of spray instead of injection, depends on severity. Heck, once I tried to chew coca leaves and that got me pretty numb in my mouth for quite some time, couldn't articulate properly etc. It's still chemistry put into the body messing up with pain signaling, but I wouldn't worry that much about it (or you'll go crazy with all possible things that could harm a kid one way or the other)
- rscho 10y ago
  PLEASE do not state fear-mongering numbers without source, especially about medicine! Anesthesia is safer than traveling by plane, nowadays. According to a 10 sec googling, the mortality is now sub 10/million/year, and that's including high-risk populations. source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2697561/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2697561/
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - maxerickson 10y ago
    US commercial airlines haven't had a fatal accident since 2009. I think that's a better apple than 'traveling by plane'.
  - dagw 10y ago
    But even those numbers show that the death rate for kids aged 0-4 is significantly higher[1] than for older kids and young adults. I know that doctors on the whole really try to avoid having to put kids under for just this reason. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2697561/figure/F3/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2697561/figure/...
    - rscho 10y ago
      The common guideline is 6 mo and 2 yo. Those ages are commonly viewed as cutoffs for risk levels. In our hospital for example, the presence of an attending will be required for induction/waking up of anesthesia under 2 years old. Under 6 months, the risk of respiratory complication is far greater, which is why surgery is withheld until that age, except in emergencies.
  - saiya-jin 10y ago
    PLEASE understand the meaning of "if I recall correctly". I was wrong. Not everybody is attempting to write a post in an online forum about in form or article for Nature or Science, backchecking every statement in every sentence. Jeez
    - rscho 10y ago
      I do understand. It's not a problem for me. But look at all the terrorized people commenting on this story. They already think anesthesia means death to the kids, or something. You are not helping them.
pc86 10y ago
> I have nothing to do with medicine And yet your response is just supposition ("I wouldn't be surprised if..."). Anesthesia is fine.

rscho 10y ago

The classic risk in dental procedures is the dentist using a lidocaine-adrenalin mix, which when injected into a vessel (by mistake), will make your heart race, your blood pressure skyrocket, and provoke a general sense of unease/impending doom. It is also the main reason why many people say they are "allergic" to anesthesia. In fact, the complication profile of amide-class local anesthetics is very safe. As for the interaction of anesthesia with development, scientific evidence is scarce and anesthesia alone does not seem to have such a great impact on the long term. Anyway, I would be far more worried about hypnotic drugs than local anesthetics in that regard.

throwanem 10y ago
> a lidocaine-adrenalin mix, which when injected into a vessel (by mistake), will make your heart race, your blood pressure skyrocket, and provoke a general sense of unease/impending doom Wait, that's not supposed to happen? I pretty much just figured oh well, it's epi, what are you gonna do.
masklinn 10y ago
> The classic risk in dental procedures is the dentist using a lidocaine-adrenalin mix, which when injected into a vessel (by mistake), will make your heart race, your blood pressure skyrocket, and provoke a general sense of unease/impending doom. And there's a fun side-effect, or at least I had that: body learns to completely blow up under stress. Before I went through that I had very low stress impact (psychological stress had no physical impact), since then stressful situations almost lock me up (heart racing, muscles contracting, …). It's really quite annoying.
viewer5 10y ago
> and provoke a general sense of unease/impending doom Oh shit I thought I was just weird. Do you have any more information on that? I felt that when I was getting a crown put in, it was horrifying, "impending doom" is the perfect description. It also happened the (one) time I donated blood, though I don't remember being given any injections or anything though; but I felt that EXACT same "impending doom" sensation; at the time I thought basically "well this is the end, they accidentally took too much blood and I'm going to die now". I felt cold to the core and started sweating horribly and spontaneously, just like the time at the dentist.