question about anesthesia

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Specializes in ICU.

I was curious...what exactly happens to you when you are "knocked out"? Is your body just in an unconscious state/deep sleep, your pain sensors blocked, or what is it exactly that happens?!

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I was curious...what exactly happens to you when you are "knocked out"? Is your body just in an unconscious state/deep sleep, your pain sensors blocked, or what is it exactly that happens?!

That depends on the level of anesthisia. There are several agents that must be used to reach the optimal level for the proceedure being performed. It can be anywhere from just a decrease in awareness to total dependancey on the docs to breath for you.

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Like Orphan Nurse said, the goals of anesthesia are no pain, no rememberance, and physiological homeostasis. Also muscle relaxation depending on the procedure performed. There is not one drug that can do all these things so you will get a variety of drugs to hopefully help you reach this state. About sleep, most of the time the patient will be in a deep sleep state.

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