Anesthesiology

Local/regional anaesthesia

This allows for only the part of the body operated on to be put to sleep without any loss of consciousness. It can be used on its own for surgery, together with a general anaesthesia, or exclusively for the management of postoperative pain.

The principle is to inject a longer or shorter lasting local anaesthetic near the nerves in order to prevent the transmission of the pain signal to the brain.

There are different types of local/regional anaesthesia:

• Medullary anaesthesia (epidural or spinal): by injecting a local anaesthetic near the spinal cord. This technique allows for the lower part of the body to be put to sleep, for example, for gynaecological or urological surgery;
• Peripheral block: by injecting a local anaesthetic near a nerve or a nerve plexus. This technique allows for a single limb to be put to sleep to carry out an operation on that limb, for example, for orthopaedic surgery.

This is how the anesthesia procedure works

During the procedure, the anaesthetist will use equipment that allows the patient’s vital functions to be monitored throughout the operation. An intravenous catheter will be positioned, which allows the drugs to be administered through the vein. Subsequently, the anaesthetist will implement the anaesthetic technique decided upon in consultation with the patient.

Throughout the operation, the anaesthetist, or a nurse anaesthetist, stays with the patient to ensure a sufficient quantity of anaesthesia during the procedure, as well as the patient’s safety.

At the end of the operation, the doctor will wake the patient. If the patient was under general anaesthesia, they will be accompanied to the recovery room for postoperative monitoring, where the patient will remain until fully awake.

The administration of different analgesics for the postoperative treatment of pain will occur in post-anaesthesia care units.

Only once the patient is fully awake, their vital functions stable and their pain under control will the anaesthetist authorise the patient’s return to their room.