Expert: Dr Ian Jackson - please note UK based - 10/28/2006

Question
I am a sophomore at Mt. Hebron High School, currently taking an Independent Resource G/T course, which is a college-level course that allows students like myself to research an area of interest. My area of interest is anesthesiology and anesthesiologist. I am very interested in this area because it has benefited many patients who go under surgery of any kind. It also changed my perspective about being “under the knife” and pain associated with surgery. In other words, it gave the world of medicine a new advancement. To further my knowledge about my area of interest, there are a few questions I would like to ask you.

1)   What were some of the obstacles, stresses, and pressures that you had to put up with when you were studying this field? How did you overcome them?

2)   What are the side effects or after effects of using anesthetic for surgical operations? How long will it last?


3)Does an anethesiologist get sued for reasons such as if the patient suddenly wakes up during surgery?

Thankyou in adavance for taking your time to read and answer my questions. Thankyou. Your answers will benefit me alot.


Answer
Hi there
This will be brief as I don't normally answer questions linked to school work.
When you start out in anaesthesia you do not realise fully the dangers that you are exposing yourself and your patients to. You also don't realise there are a lot of people supporting you even when your clinical colleagues leave you with a patient to test you. Indeed we depend on these supporting colleagues in UK anaesthesia. The stresses come as you gradually learm what a potentially dangerous occupation your are in. However if one is attentive the dangers are few and far between.
Sorry side effects could keep us going for several days and depend on type of anaesthetic used. Major areas for you to look at are
post operative nausea and vomiting (PONV)
pain - due to the surgeons not us!
cerebral effects - esp in the elderly leading to confusion, memory loss etc
then ther are side effects of Local Anaesthesia techniques
Yes anaesthetists get sued. If you have a patient aware during their anaesthetic then that in most cases is inexcusable and so we deserve to be sued. However there are some cases where patients have been saved from deaths door by anaesthetists and have then been aware, That is a rather different story.
Hope that helps a bit
All the best
Dr ian Jackson