What exactly ia anesthesia ?

Question

is it a drug or a chemical substance ?

can you answer my other question about anesthesiologist :

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Akkg_6nGdfA5Z84mHp_eRUzsy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20080620151816AA5fTav

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=An0VLhL14LgwUQ0C9BByQsnsy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20080619195113AAezyHE

Answer 1

"Anesthesia" is a collection of techniques that help alleviate the pain, anxiety and discomfort of procedures that would otherwise be painful or mentally distressing.  We also keep people alive during procedures that would otherwise kill you.

We have general anesthesia (going to sleep), neuraxial anesthesia (spinals and epidurals :) ), nerve blocks (too many to name) and sedation.

We use a bunch of different drugs to accomplish what we do, maybe 5-10 different drugs for a routine GA.  Each anesthetic is tailored to the individual patient, surgoen and procedure, so they're all a little bit different.