15 - Anaesthetics Flashcards
What are the different types of anaesthetics?
- IV: propofol, barbituarates, etomidate, ketamine (children)
- Gases: often contain a lot of Cl or F e.g nitrous oxide, chloroform, xenon, cyclopropane
What are the different stages of general anaesthesia?
- Premedication (hypnotic-benzodiazepene)
- Induction (usually IV but can be inhalational)
- Intraoperative analgesia (e.g fentanyle)
- Muscle paralysis to facilitate intubation
- Maintenance IV or inhalational
- Reversal of muscle paralysis and recovery
- Post operative analgesia
- Provision for PONV with antiemetics
What are Guedel’s signs?
- The level to which the anaesthetic is working on the CNS (read stages on image)
- Stage 2 is paradoxical excitment
- Want to be in stage 3 and as you go down breathing decreases and you lose muscle tone
What is MAC when we talk about anaesthetics?
Minimum alveolar concentration: alveolar concentration of the anaesthetic at which 50% of subjects fail to move to surgical stimulus. Used to compare potency between anaesthetics
[Alveolar] = [Spinal cord]
Can have MAC-BAR (autonomic respose) and MAC-awake
What factors affect induction and recovery of anaesthesia?
Blood:Gas Partition
Solubility of volatile anaesthetic in the blood. Low value means fast induction and recovery e.g desflurane
Oil:Gas Partition
Solubility in fat so determines potency. Greater ability to travel in fat, the higher the potency but the anaesthetic can accumulate in fat so can take patient a long time to wake up e.g halothane
What are some factors that affect MAC?
- Age (high in infants, low in elderly)
- Hyperthermia (increased) and Hypothermia (decreased)
- Pregnancy (increased)
- Alcoholism (increased)
- Central stimulants (increased)
- Other anaesthetics and sedatives (decreased)
- Opioids (decreased)
What effect does nitrous oxide have on MAC?
- Commonly added to other volatile anaesthetics to decrease the MAC so don’t need to use as much anaesthetic so less side effects
- Same with opiates and other anaesthetics
What is conscious sedation?
Conscious sedation is the use of small amounts of anaesthetic or benzodiazepines to produce a ‘sleepy-like’ state
What is the anatomical substrate for MAC?
Spinal cord
What is the relationship between anaesthetic potency, lipid solubility and GABAa activity?
- Graph on left x-axis is oil:gas partition
- The more lipid soluble a drug is, the more activity it has and the more potent it is
How are GABAA receptors involved in general anaesthesia?
- All anaesthetics (few exceptions) activate inhibitory GABAA causing Cl- conductance and hyperpolarisation so depressed CNS activity as increased negative charge so cannot produce an action potential
- Xe, N2O and Ketamine are the only ones that don’t do this
- GABAA activation therefore depresses reticular system which depresses hippocampus (memory), brainstem (CVS and resp) and spinal cord (analgesia)
What effects arise from potentiating GABAA receptors?
- Anxiolysis
- Sedation
- Anaesthesia
Explain how general anaesthetics modulate consciousness and anaesthesia in the brain?
- In the brain consciousness is a balance between excitation (Glutamate) and inhibition (GABA)
- Anaesthetics modulate this balance
How does ketamine work to induce sedation on a molecular level?
- NMDA glutamate receptor blocker
- NMDA glutamate agonists are used to wake the patient up as they excite
What are the main IV anaesthetics and how do they work?
- Propofol (MJ Juice) (rapid)
- Barbiturates (rapid)
- Ketamine (slower)
- All potentiate GABAA apart from ketamine which acts on NMDA