BBC
Some general anaesthetics could actually worsen the pain following
surgery, say scientists.
So-called "noxious" anaesthesia drugs - used commonly worldwide -
stimulate nerves to cause irritation long after the operation is over.
The US research, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences journal, could prompt the choice of different drugs.
A UK expert said solving post-surgical pain was a priority for
anaesthetists.
Anaesthetists have known for some time that certain drugs, such as the
gas isoflurane, while very effective at rendering and keeping patients
unconscious, are actually irritant chemicals.
Some already use a painkilling drug to lessen this effect before
delivering the anaesthetic itself.
The latest finding, by research staff at Georgetown University Medical
Center however, suggests that effects of the irritant is not just
short-lived, but lingers on long after both the painkiller and the
anaesthetic have worn off.
The drugs act on the same receptors on nerve cells which are activated
by contact with other irritants, such as garlic, mustard or chilli.
Mice bred without these receptors were unaffected by the "noxious"
anaesthetic gases.
If strongly activated, these can lead not just to an immediate
sensation of pain, but also a longer oversensitisation of pain
pathways in the nervous system.
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"Have known for some time" ???!!!
Then WHY DID THEY KEEP *USING* THEM ??? Do they
get kickbacks from the makers of painkillers ?
Hospital administrators ? Cheapness ???
Surgery can be painful enough as is ... we hardly
need to be using anasthetics that leave your nerves
with a bad case of the DTs - amplifying every ache
and twinge to aganozing pro****tions for weeks or
months afterwards.
How many health dollars are spent controlling such
pain ? How much extra time in an expensive, MRSA-
bacteria-infested hospital ? How many workdays lost ?
How many people motivated to addiction or even suicide
by chronic pain ???
Yes, in special cases, the particular characteristics
of a specific anasthetic may be critical to survival ...
not interfere with a bad heart, not overload a weak
liver or kidney, not cause an allergic reaction etc ...
but that doesn't mean the stuff is OK for *every* case
or even *most* cases.
Sometimes you've just gotta WONDER about doctors. Is
it incompetence, greed, or do they just not give a
damn ? Now imagine them ****elded by a thick national-
health bureaucracy .....
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