Balanced General Anesthesia: Understanding the Combination of Inhalational and Intravenous Anesthetics

What does balanced general anesthesia mean?

a. Combination of inhaled and intravenous anesthetics

b. Inhaled anesthesia only

c. Intravenous anesthesia only

d. No anesthesia

Answer:

Final answer: Balanced general anesthesia means the combination of inhaled and intravenous anesthetics to induce and maintain unconsciousness and a lack of sensation during medical procedures.

General anesthesia refers to a medically-induced, reversible state of unconsciousness accompanied by a lack of sensation. The term balanced anesthesia describes a combination of medicative methods typically employed to achieve this state. Specifically, balanced general anesthesia involves the use of both inhalational anesthetics and intravenous anesthetics.

In practice, a patient may receive an anesthetic injection to initiate anesthesia quickly, followed by the delivery of gases to maintain it during a surgical procedure. This use of a combination maximizes the beneficial effects while minimizing potential adverse effects. Inhalation agents are typically volatile liquids or gases administered using an anesthesia machine, while intravenous agents are administered through injections directly into the bloodstream.

Anesthetics work by acting on the brain to induce unconsciousness and a general insensitivity to feeling or pain. The first general anesthetic used was diethyl ether, but today a wide variety of drugs are used to achieve anesthesia, often in combination to take advantage of their synergistic effects.