1、 General anesthesia for children does not affect their health
Many children, due to their dependence on their parents and fear of surgery and medical staff, often cry and refuse to cooperate during surgery, so general anesthesia is often required during the operation. But there has always been a saying in society that children who use general anesthesia will become stupid and impaired, affecting their learning and development. According to current medical data, there is no evidence to suggest that the anesthesia drugs and methods currently used have adverse effects on children's health and intelligence.
2、 General anesthesia can alleviate psychological trauma in children. Why is general anesthesia necessary for the vast majority of pediatric surgeries? Experts point out that young children in the unfamiliar environment of the operating room will definitely feel fear in their hearts. Using general anesthesia not only makes the child feel "painless", but also allows them to cooperate with the surgery and avoid struggling due to fear, which hinders the progress of the surgery. More importantly, the use of general anesthesia in pediatric surgery is beneficial for the psychological well-being of children after surgery. If a child is conscious and watches the dazzling surgical instruments perform various operations on themselves, and hears the collision sound of surgical instruments next to their ears, even if there is no pain, it will leave psychological trauma. Therefore, parents should correct the misconception that general anesthesia is more dangerous than local anesthesia. Appropriate general anesthesia not only makes the child feel comfortable and avoids adverse psychological effects caused by fear, but also facilitates the smooth progress of surgery and improves surgical safety.
3、 What is general anesthesia?
General anesthesia refers to the inhalation of anesthetics through the respiratory tract, intravenous or intramuscular injection into the body, which produces inhibition of the central nervous system. Clinical manifestations include loss of consciousness, loss of overall pain perception, forgetfulness, reflex inhibition, and skeletal muscle relaxation, known as general anesthesia. The degree of inhibition of the central nervous system is related to the concentration of drugs in the blood and can be controlled and regulated. This inhibition is completely reversible, as the patient's consciousness and various reflexes gradually recover after the drug is metabolized or excreted from the body.
Anesthesia is the use of anesthetic drugs to temporarily relieve pain in patients, while general anesthesia is just one of many anesthesia methods to keep patients in a painless and completely asleep state. After the surgery, the concentration of anesthetic drugs decreases, and the patient will gradually wake up without any adverse memory of the entire surgical process.
The most basic requirements for pediatric anesthesia are sleep and pain relief. Sleep is very important for children because they have a fear of surgery, coupled with entering an operating room without parents, this unfamiliar environment can make children even more uneasy. At the same time, children's poor tolerance for pain and discomfort caused by the fixed posture required during surgery can lead to extreme lack of cooperation with the surgery. So, pediatric surgery generally requires adequate medication to keep them asleep.
At present, commonly used analgesics include diazepam, midazolam, propofol, etc., all of which work through intramuscular injection, intravenous injection, or pulmonary respiration into the bloodstream. This anesthesia method has a one-time effect on the brain, that is, when the concentration of drugs in the blood reaches a certain level, it produces analgesic effects. When the concentration of the drug decreases through metabolic conversion in the body, the patient will become alert. As long as the supply of inhaled anesthetics is stopped, the medication will be quickly expelled from the exhaled gas, and the patient will become alert as the anesthesia becomes shallower.
During the process of anesthesia awakening, it is normal for children to experience mental confusion, drowsiness, or crying. Parents do not need to be overly nervous because anesthesia drugs only temporarily inhibit the child's nervous system. After anesthesia, the nervous system will return to normal. However, the specific reasons for what we usually consider to be the "dumbness" of children after general anesthesia need to be analyzed. During surgery or anesthesia, if brain cells are deprived of oxygen due to various reasons and rescue is not timely, it will damage brain cells. If the duration exceeds 5-8 minutes, it can lead to intellectual disability, vegetative state, and even more serious adverse consequences for the surgeon, which are all possible accidents during anesthesia.
The development of various organs in children's bodies is not yet complete, and their compensatory function is worse than that of adults, so the probability of anesthesia accidents is higher. But doctors will choose appropriate anesthesia methods based on the characteristics of pediatric orthopedic patients, minimizing the use of general anesthesia drugs. Parents should trust the doctor's judgment.
4、 Under what circumstances should children avoid general anesthesia? Parents need to pay attention to fasting their children as required before surgery, otherwise vomiting during anesthesia can be dangerous and cause aspiration. It is common knowledge for surgical anesthesia that patients should not drink water or eat for 6 hours before surgery, because children who are fully fed are prone to respiratory obstruction due to vomiting, which can lead to cerebral hypoxia. Therefore, 4-6 hours or more after gastric emptying is the best safe time for surgery.
Avoid surgery during a cold (unless it is an emergency or life-threatening surgery). During a cold, the respiratory tract is highly susceptible to inflammatory reactions, which can cause respiratory complications such as shortness of breath, laryngeal spasms, and bronchial spasms in infants and young children under the age of one during anesthesia and for a period of time after anesthesia. It is generally believed that children with simple respiratory tract infections have higher respiratory stress levels 2-4 weeks ago, and surgery should be avoided as much as possible.