General Anesthesia vs Regional Anesthesia

The lower portion of the body is left weak and thus the patient 's legs will not be able to move during the procedure . It usually lasts for about two to six hours depending on the drug that was used The nurse should monitor the blood pressure because lowering of blood pressure is common with spinal anesthesia

Epidural anesthesia is done through injection of anesthetics directly in the space surrounding the spinal fluid sac . This space is known as epidural space . After the anesthetic is injected the nerves become numb Pain relief

is slow but blood pressure dropping has a lesser chance to occur . A major advantage of these anesthetics is that the block can be maintained for a long period of time , even days after the operation maintaining an excellent pain relief operation

Nerve block is a more involved form of regional anesthesia . When anesthetics are injected into the area of the nerve involved in the procedure , the injected anesthetics blocks the nerve impulses that transmit pain in the brain . As a consequence of this , no pain produced It has the benefit of decreasing the amount of other pain medications thereby limiting side effects and providing a better pain relief even after the operation

Mechanism of anesthesia

Anesthesia affects the nerve cells or the neurons by changing the course of sodium molecules through its membranes . The mechanism is not really known because anesthetics are not known to attach to any receptor nor does it affect any transmission of the nerve impulses . When the sodium molecules change the flow in neurons there is no way for nerve impulses to regenerate thus causing the brain to be unconscious . In general anesthesia it does not store any memories , pain impulses from the other areas of the body are not registered and looses...