Unveiling the Sleepy Magic:

If you've ever had surgery, you remember counting back from, 10, 9, 8, , and then waking up and before you got to 5, the surgery was already over.

Maybe.

It may look like you're asleep, but you're not.

They were under anesthesia, but it's much more complicated.

You were unconscious, but you couldn't move, I hope you didn't form a memory, or feel pain.

Without the ability to block all these processes at once, many surgeries would be too traumatic to be performed.

Ancient medical texts from Egypt, Asia, and the Middle East all describe early anesthetics, including opium poppy, mandrake fruit, and alcohol.

Today, anesthesiologists often combine topical, inhaled, and intravenous medications to find the right balance for surgery.

Local anesthesia prevents pain signals from certain parts of the body from reaching the brain.

Pain and other messages travel through the nervous system as electrical impulses.

Local anesthetics work by creating an electrical barricade.

They bind to proteins in the neuron's cell membrane, allowing charged particles to enter and exit and blocking positively charged particles.

One compound that does this is cocaine.

Analgesic properties were discovered by chance when an ophthalmology resident applied cocaine to his tongue.

It is still sometimes used as an anesthetic, but many of the more common local anesthetics have a similar chemical structure and work in the same way.

But for major surgeries that require unconsciousness, you need something that affects the entire nervous system, including the brain.

This is how inhaled anesthetics work.

Diethyl ether was the first common therapeutic agent in Western medicine.

It was primarily known as a recreational drug until doctors realized that people were sometimes unaware of the injuries they sustained while under the influence.

In the 1840s, he began using ether to sedate patients during tooth extractions and surgeries.

Nitrous Oxide became popular in the decades after he used it and is still in use today, but ether derivatives such as sevoflurane are more common.

Inhalation anesthesia is usually assisted by intravenous anesthesia, which was developed in the 1870s.

Common intravenous drugs include sedatives, such as propofol, which causes unconsciousness, and opioids, such as fentanyl, which reduce pain.

These general anesthetics also appear to work by affecting electrical signals in the nervous system.

Normally, the brain's electrical signals are a chaotic chorus, as different parts of the brain communicate with each other.

This connection makes you more awake and alert.

But when a person is under anesthesia, these signals become quieter and more organized, suggesting that different parts of the brain no longer talk to each other.

We still don't know exactly how this happens.

Some common anesthetics bind to her GABA-A receptors in neurons in the brain.

They hold the gate open, allowing negatively charged particles to flow into the cell.

Negative charges accumulate and act like the trunk of a tree, preventing neurons from transmitting electrical signals.

The nervous system has many of these closed channels, pathways that control movement, memory, and consciousness.

Most anesthetics probably have multiple effects and do not only affect the nervous system.

Many anesthetics also affect the heart, lungs, and other vital organs.

Like early anesthetics, which contain well-known toxins such as hemlock and aconite, modern medicines can also cause serious side effects.

Therefore, anesthesiologists need to mix the right balance of drugs to achieve all the properties of anesthesia, carefully monitoring the patient's vital signs and adjusting the drug mixture as necessary.

Anesthesia is complex, but understanding how to administer it has enabled the development of new and better surgical techniques.

Surgeons could learn how to routinely and safely perform C-sections,

reopen blocked arteries,

replace damaged livers and kidneys,

and many other life-saving operations.

And each year, new anesthesia techniques are developed

that will ensure more and more patients survive the trauma of surgery.