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Anesthesia is used during medical procedures to limit the amount of pain a patient experiences. Doctors utilize a wide array of techniques for applying anesthesia, depending on the amount of pain reduction needed. This ranges from a simple novocaine injection to numb the mouth for a routine dental operation, all the way to rendering patients unconscious in order to perform open heart surgery. Anesthesia is essential to modern medicine, but anesthesia errors can easily turn fatal.
There are several types of anesthesia, though the most well known are local and general anesthesia. General anesthesia describes situations where the patient is rendered unconscious to perform an operation or procedure. Local anesthesia only affects a limited area, such as numbing the eye in order to perform laser eye surgery. General anesthesia is frequently combined with local anesthetics at the site of the operation to numb the site further.
Local anesthesia is not limited to minor operations, however. Any situation where a patient must remain conscious cannot make use of general anesthesia. While local anesthetics are used for things like root canals and laser eye surgery, there are many brain surgeries that can only be performed while the patient is conscious. Since patients remain alert, local anesthesia is ordinarily used.
Putting a patient under general anesthesia is a much more delicate task. The difference between a dose that will render a patient unconscious and a dose that will kill that person can be very small. General anesthesia can require the presence of an anesthesiologist--a doctor specializing solely in the use of anesthetics. Anesthesiologists must consider a number of factors in determining what dose to administer, including the patient's weight, age, possible drug or alcohol use, and his or her medical history.
Anesthesiology is not without error, but doctors today know much more than they did in the past. When a doctor acts with sufficient care, making absolutely sure the dose is correct, general anesthesia can be safe. When anesthesiologists make errors, however, their negligence can lead to permanent disability and death.
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Victims of anesthesia errors have the right to take legal measures against the doctors responsible. If you or someone you love has been the victim of an anesthesia error, visit the website of the New Jersey medical malpractice lawyers of Levinson Axelrod, P.A. today.
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