As an anaesthesiologist (well, senior trainee), I hesitate to comment on this, but here goes nothing...
I think it’s important to remember that the vast majority of anaesthesia delivered does not involve ‘general anaesthesia’ nor neuromuscular blocking drugs. Most patient’s experience of anaesthesia is sedation, where the aim is comfort, not absence of recall.
There is a bit of a movement to reduce our reliance on neuromuscular junction blocking drugs, which will hopefully lead to a decrease in the incidence of awareness under general anaesthesia.
In my institution, even of general anaesthetics, less than 30% would involve neuromuscular blockade.
Neuromuscular blockade only affects your skeletal muscle, not muscles like your heart or those in your gut.
Very interesting. I cannot recall having sedation outside of dental practices, but I have had several colonoscopies which involved counting down from 10, getting to about 8 and waking up hours later in recovery.
You probably (depending on your location) had so-called ‘deep sedation’ for your colonoscopies, which usually involves reasonable doses of anaesthetic drugs, likely leading to complete amnesia. The crucial point is that we don’t necessarily promise no recall, that’s a side effect of maintain comfort and facilitating the procedure.
I think it’s important to remember that the vast majority of anaesthesia delivered does not involve ‘general anaesthesia’ nor neuromuscular blocking drugs. Most patient’s experience of anaesthesia is sedation, where the aim is comfort, not absence of recall.
There is a bit of a movement to reduce our reliance on neuromuscular junction blocking drugs, which will hopefully lead to a decrease in the incidence of awareness under general anaesthesia.
In my institution, even of general anaesthetics, less than 30% would involve neuromuscular blockade.
Neuromuscular blockade only affects your skeletal muscle, not muscles like your heart or those in your gut.