According to Dr. Brown, anesthesia is viewed as a mystery by many patients and providers — a misconception, to some degree. “We’ve certainly known how to make anesthesia safe,” he said in the article. He says while researchers may not entirely understand how anesthesia actually works, the basics of safety — regulating heart rate, blood pressure, temperature and gases — have been mastered.
Dr. Brown has conducted research since 2004 into how anesthesia actually works, imaging patients’ brains in functional MRI scanners and measuring brain activities with EEG monitors. By monitoring the patient’s brain while he or she is under anesthesia, researchers can watch various parts of the brain change in activity, according to the report.
So far, his research has shown that the brain does not shut down completely under general anesthesia. In addition, the brain cannot transit information under anesthesia.
Read the New York Times article on Dr. Emery Neal Brown.
Read more on anesthesia:
–Anesthesia & Analgesia Retracts All Articles Published by Dr. Joachim Boldt
–ASA Asks CMS to Revise Meaningful Use Criteria
–Interventional Pain Management: A Physician Specialty
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