Definition: General anesthesia, which literally means loss of feeling or awareness, in practice means the use of various drugs injected by vein or inhaled to prevent pain and cause sleep during major surgery. Sometimes this involves a mask to breathe the anesthetic and sometimes a special tube (endotracheal tube) needs to be inserted down the throat. Local or regional anesthesia may also be used to eliminate or dull pain without causing sleep. This is done by injection of drugs into nerves and/or areas that require minor surgery or biopsies.
Pronunciation: Aa-nes-THEE-zhia
Examples: In order to perform major abdominal cytoreductive ovarian surgery general anesthesia, involving both inhaled medicines and drugs injected by vein, is required.
