Anaesthetic

[katepixie]

How does anaesthetic work? How exactly does it stop you feeling pain? Especially local anaesthetic.

Just popped into my head and now i'm stressed because i don't know!

[Octavius]

The word 'anaesthesia' means 'loss of sensation'.

Drugs that cause anaesthesia work by blocking the signals that pass along your nerves to your brain.  When the drugs wear off, you start to feel normal sensations again, including pain.

So, when injected into the vein, or by gas into the lungs, the drug is carried to the brain by the blood.  They stop the blood recognsing messages coming from the nerves in the body.

Were you looking for something more technical?

[katepixie]

Thanks for that, I'm not really sure how technical I wanted to get.

So you're saying that the pain is still created but the brain doesn't recognise it? That would make sense.

Thanks

[Tim Baxter]

Why does a local anaesthtic applied only to the skin work?

[stevie21]

There are nerves under the surface of the skin and local anaesthetics work by interrupting the transfer of information from them.