What drugs are used for anesthesia these days? Do they wear off quickly?

Factual Questions
1

In 1994, I had nose surgery after a car crash. I don’t know what drug was used for anesthesia, but I have never felt worse in my life that then 24 hours after that.

What drugs are used today in 2008? Do you still feel horrible later?

2

I would think that reactions like that are individual. I had surgery about 7 months ago. I fell asleep, I woke up in pain after it was done. Other than unpleasantness of morphine (I hate opiates) I did not feel anything anesthesia-related.

3

Any time I’ve had major surgery with general anesthesia, it seems like it takes a few days for my digestive system to get back online. I don’t know if that’s anesthesia related or just the result of the surgical insult.

4

yllaria–that does have to do with the surgery as well as any medications you might have received. that’s another reason why it’s important to get up and move about asap after surgery. the drugs used now are much safer than those used just a few years ago. they have shorter acting times and are often reversed with other drugs before you wake up. (oh yeah–i’m a nurse and hubby’s anesthesiologist!)

5

Why is it important?

6

Increases blood pressure, pulse, and respiration. The lungs need to clear out any inhaled anesthesia - if you don’t do deep breathing to clear out the lungs, you could have some of the gas still in there. Increase in bp and pulse means that circulation is increased, which in turn means the liver and kidney have more resources to metabolize the anesthetic and clear it out of the system.

I know that Versed is used in a lot of surgeries. The cool thing about it is that it causes a slight retrograde and strong perigrade (right word usage?) amnesia. A friend went in for some cosmetic surgery, and I sat with her. She got Versed by IV about half an hour before being wheeled in. Her memory was scrubbed clean to half an hour before that. At the time, it just made her relaxed, loopy, and happy.

IIRC, different forms of -iazepam drugs are used: Benzodiazepam and others. These are muscle relaxers, tranquilizers, and (I think) central nervous system depressants. Only a very little is needed, they have a very specific time to be cleared out of the system, and recovery is very quick.

For my friend, the hardest part of recovery for her was that the pain made her nauseated. She didn’t perceive it so much as pain. She kept saying she was fine, except she threw up every five minutes. I finally asked the nurse to give her some pain meds, and she perked right up.