I’ve heard that if someone undergoes surgery and needs to be put under with general anesthesia, that the doctor will put a tube down your lungs to make sure you get enough oxygen.
So does this mean a person under general anesthesia is incapable of breathing on their own, or is it done as a safety measure?
Final question:
How do doctors know when to take the tube out before a patient wakes up? I’ve never been put under before, but one of my fear has always been to wake up with a metal tube down my throat and get that Matrix Neo experience when he first wakes up in the pod and pulls a giant tube from his throat.
Does this ever happen? How is it prevented?
In: 197
I am a physician. There are some bad answers here.
First of all, there are many different medications and effects that we call “general anesthesia”, but by and large, if you undergo general anesthesia, your breathing reflex is suppressed. You do not breathe. Furthermore, you have no ability to move, cough, or do anything to protect your airway. If the position of your head, neck, or tongue obstructs your breathing, you cannot correct it. If your saliva falls into your throat, you cannot clear your throat or cough.
Thus, some kind of tube and mechanical ventilation are necessary, or you will die. This is not a “just in case” thing, it is what keeps you alive.
There are types of sedation where breathing is (usually) maintained, and thus a tube is not necessary. These are used for simple, shorter procedures on healthy people, such as reducing a shoulder dislocation. For
most major surgeries, such as those performed on your abdominal organs, you need general anesthesia.
>How do doctors know when to take the tube out before a patient wakes up?
This is a matter of training and experience. The doctor who is trained in anesthesia (an anesthesiologist) is in charge of your medications and your breathing (among other things). They communicate with the surgeon during the procedure. When things are getting close to the end, they start reducing and / or altering the medication so as to be ready to wake up the patient. By their knowledge of the medications they use, their duration of action, and patient characteristics such as weight, kidney and liver function, they estimate when they can get the patient to return to normal breathing, and remove the tube at that time.
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