Anaesthesia basics

Types of anaesthesia, the machine and breathing circuits, standard monitoring, the safety checklist and what anaesthesia does to the body.

9 pages

• Awareness and depth of anaesthesiaRarely, a patient under general anaesthesia becomes aware and later remembers events; careful…
• General anaesthesia: induction, maintenance and emergenceA general anaesthetic has a start (falling asleep), a middle (staying asleep during surgery) and…
• General, regional, local and sedation: what each one isAnaesthesia can put the whole person to sleep, numb one region of the body, numb one small spot…
• Levels of sedation and procedural sedation safetySedation runs from relaxed but awake to deeply asleep; the deeper it goes, the more the…
• Positioning and its injuriesUnder anaesthesia the patient cannot feel pressure or strain, so the team positions and pads the…
• Standard intraoperative monitoringDuring anaesthesia, a trained person stays with the patient and machines continuously watch…
• The anaesthesia machine and breathing circuits, in principleThe anaesthesia machine mixes oxygen, air and anaesthetic vapour in safe proportions and…
• The surgical safety checklist from the anaesthesia sideBefore anaesthesia, before the first cut and before the patient leaves theatre, the team pauses…
• What anaesthesia does to the heart, lungs, brain and kidneysAnaesthetic drugs switch off awareness but also relax blood vessels, slow breathing and change…

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← Anaesthesia and critical care

Educational content; it does not replace supervised training, your institution's protocols or the anaesthetist's or intensivist's decision. It contains no doses and no ventilator or infusion settings.

Representative model, for educational purposes only.