Since I’m going for an operation on Tuesday, I’m curious, what medication(s) is/are used to put people to sleep for 3-4 hours these days?
You need to ask your doctor and/or the anesthesiologist this. There are tons of different kinds of drugs that are used during different kinds of surgeries. Some render you totally unconscious, others make you drowsy, and still others merely make you forget whatever ghastly procedure you just underwent. Find out what they’re giving you and then we can talk.
And “put you to sleep” covers a lot of territory. One of the ones that only makes you forget what you just experienced–Versed–is frequently presented to patients by medical professionals as, “Most people go right to sleep”. But it doesn’t, really.
IANA doctor but there are two general classes of anaesthetics. Inhaled ones include nitrous oxide, and various fluorinated gases such as isoflurane. Injected drugs might include valium or Propofol. You would need to check with the surgeon to see what they are using.
It varies, depending upon the degree of unconciousness and pain-blocking required. There’s a bunch of inhalational anaesthetics - sevflurane, desflurane, halothane and the like, which are generally used in conjunction with a pre-op sedative. The gas is fed to you continuously via a mask (with oxygen!), and halted at the end of the procedure. Many of these agents have a fast recovery time.
Barbituates tend not to be used anymore having been replaced by benzodiazepines, although thiopental may still be used as an induction agent, that is to say, to initially put a patient under. The benzodiazepine midazolam can be used for general anaesthesia, but is quite short acting and is more commonly used for induction.
Propofol is injectable but has a fast recovery time like the inhalational anaesthetics, so is supplied continuously throughout the procedure to keep you under, then halted at the end. This is called Total Intravenous Anaethesia and is relatively new but increasingly popular.
Opiates such as fentanyl or remifentanil may be supplied in conjunction with the anaesthetic agent for superior pain-blocking.
Wikipedia has a LOT of info on anaesthetics, probably more than you want to know!
I’m not sure, but it feels like a cold white snake crawling up your upper arm.
And a few months later (in my experience) you get an invoice for $500 from the anaethiologist, which is odd as you though she was part of what you pre-paid.
Nice work, if you can get it …
lol, I hear that. Thanks, guys !
Hey DIGGLE…good luck with your operation.
A lot of their choices are pt driven, that is what procedure you’re getting, prior history, medication allergies, pre-existing medical conditions.
You pre-paid for the putting you under part. The bill is for bringing you back!