Eli5 Why shouldn’t I drink alcohol before surgery?
In: 50
When they do surgery they want to keep you from being awake, in excruciating pain as they cut you open and do whatever they need done. To that end they administer anesthesia, a chemical cocktail designed to reduce your awareness, prevent you from forming memories, and stop reflexes which could interfere with the surgery. For example if they are taking out your appendix not only do they not want you screaming in pain they also don’t want you to cough and squirt your intestines out either.
But what this means is that when you are under general anesthesia both your heart rate and breathing will be reduced significantly. It isn’t easy to keep someone in the sweet spot of “unconscious, cooperative, but not-dead” which is why anesthesiologists are paid so well.
When you drink alcohol you are taking a poison into your body which is a central nervous system depressant, reducing your brain function and neural activity. Now when the anesthesiologist tries to put you under instead of your heart slowing down it might just stop completely. Or maybe you stop breathing entirely. This is generally considered “not good” because you die. Also alcohol reduces the ability of the blood to clot, which is sort of important when you are being cut open because stopping you bleeding to death is a big part of that process. Making that harder is not in your best interest.
Latest Answers