This site is intended for healthcare professionals

Go to /sign-in page

You can view 5 more pages before signing in

Depth of general anaesthesia

Last reviewed dd mmm yyyy. Last edited dd mmm yyyy

Authoring team

As described by Guedel with ether induction, with increasing depth of anaesthesia the following events occur:

  • awareness abolished by low dose of drug
  • movement abolished next
  • breathing - tidal volume and frequency altered
  • haemodynamic - cardiac and perpheral changes
  • tears in eyes - sudomotor, sweating
  • hormonal - catecholamines, growth hormones, prolactin, cortisol output altered

With modern, rapidly-acting induction, these events are witnessed in a far shorter time period.

There is no single clinical sign or machine which can indicate that the patient is properly anaesthetised.

In order to maintain controlled anaesthesia by spotting early undesirable trends or sudden complications, and so that a performance-audit can be completed, regular, thorough readings must always be taken and reported on the anaesthetic record sheet.


Create an account to add page annotations

Add information to this page that would be handy to have on hand during a consultation, such as a web address or phone number. This information will always be displayed when you visit this page

The content herein is provided for informational purposes and does not replace the need to apply professional clinical judgement when diagnosing or treating any medical condition. A licensed medical practitioner should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment of any and all medical conditions.

Connect

Copyright 2024 Oxbridge Solutions Limited, a subsidiary of OmniaMed Communications Limited. All rights reserved. Any distribution or duplication of the information contained herein is strictly prohibited. Oxbridge Solutions receives funding from advertising but maintains editorial independence.