Anesthesia and elderly patient

Abstract

Anesthesia is a state of insensitivity of the whole body or part of the body to environmental stimuli and pain. Depending on the type of anesthesia, it may involve some degree of change in consciousness. General anesthesia is a sleep-like condition in which the patient consciously does not experience any stimuli from the environment. Regional anesthesia involves a series of procedures that prevent the transmission of painful stimuli from a specific part of the body to the central nervous system and is not associated with a change in the patient's state of consciousness. Depending on the type, regional anesthesia can lead to numbness of the entire lower body, limbs, or parts of them. Local anesthesia consists of giving the medicine in the same area where the procedure will be performed, which leads to insensitivity to pain only in that small, limited area of skin and subcutaneous tissue.