Thirteen-year-old Jahi McMath was declared brain dead after complications arising from a tonsillectomy, raising new questions …
anesthesia
Study Suggests Way to Prevent Patients from Waking During Surgery
Tracking brain activity patterns may lead to better dosing and control of anesthesia.
Anesthesia Study Opens Window into Consciousness
A new study records for the first time what happens to brain cells when patients go under.
Why Solving Puzzles Is Fun: Q&A with Consciousness Researcher Daniel Bor
The evolutionary link between acquiring good information and survival may have given rise to both consciousness and the pleasure of problem-solving
Early Childhood Anesthesia Linked to Problems with Language, Memory
Increasingly, research finds that exposure to anesthesia in early childhood may have long-term effects on kids’ brain development.
Can Anesthesia Raise the Risk of ADHD?
A new study finds that children who have multiple surgeries early on have a higher risk of learning disabilities later.
Study: Ritalin May Reverse the Effects of Anesthesia
Ritalin (methylphenidate), the stimulant drug commonly used to treat attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, may speed recovery from anesthesia, according to new research in rats that found that animals awakened from anesthesia …
Device Doesn’t Help Prevent Patients From Waking During Surgery
About one in 1,000 surgery patients experience the trauma of awareness during anesthesia, and later remember feeling pain and distress during their operation. Many go on to develop symptoms of posttraumatic stress. So hospitals …
Under the Knife: Study Shows Rising Death Rates from General Anesthesia
People have always been afraid of general anesthesia. Many fear they won’t wake up from this “artificial sleep” — actually more of a coma, albeit drug-induced and reversible.
Real-Time Video: First Look at a Brain Losing Consciousness Under Anesthesia
What happens to your brain as it slips into unconsciousness? A new technique allows researchers to view real-time 3-D images of a patient undergoing anesthesia using the drug propofol, and the findings show that consciousness …
No Pain, Little Brain: Anesthesia Is More Like Coma Than Sleep
Every day, some 60,000 patients enter a state more like coma than sleep when they undergo general anesthesia — according to an unsettling study published Dec. 30 in the New England Journal of Medicine.