When it comes to anesthesia, many people, including even some non-surgical system healthcare professionals, think that anesthesia is nothing more than giving a patient a shot and then operating when the patient falls asleep. However, is it really that simple? For this reason, a brief introduction to anesthesia-related knowledge is given in order to give you a preliminary understanding of anesthesia medicine and anesthesiologists. 1.Why can’t I eat and drink before anesthesia? Fasting before anesthesia includes not only not eating, but also not drinking water. During anesthesia and surgery, reflux (the return of food from the stomach to the mouth, or even accidentally inhaled into the lungs) is a very dangerous thing, and in serious cases, it can cause lung damage, respiratory failure, or even death by asphyxiation due to accidental inhalation into the lungs. Preoperative fasting (including water) can effectively prevent reflux aspiration, according to the age of the person and the characteristics of gastrointestinal function changes, generally require preoperative newborns within 6 months fasting solid food for 4 hours (including milk), forbidden to drink water for 2 hours, 6 months to 3 years old infants and children for 6 hours, more than 3 years old children and for 8 hours. Adults are prohibited from eating solid food for at least 8 hours and from drinking water for 2 hours. 2. Is anesthesia really as simple as a shot in the lower back? There are many types of anesthesia, including general anesthesia, intraspinal anesthesia, nerve block anesthesia and so on. In fact, intralesional anesthesia is not just a simple shot in the back. The operation requires a very high level of skill from the anesthesiologist, and the tip of the needle must enter the space next to the spinal cord. If there is a slight deviation, the nerve may be damaged, and in mild cases, abnormal sensations such as numbness of the limbs may occur, and in severe cases, the limbs may be impaired or even paralyzed. Therefore, intralesional anesthesia is never as simple as a shot in the back. In addition, during the entire operation, the anesthesiologist must closely observe the patient to prevent unexpected situations from occurring. Because in the state of anesthesia, the patient’s multiple life-critical protective reflexes are inhibited, and life-threatening conditions are very likely to occur. Once such conditions arise, the anesthesiologist will immediately issue a warning and direct all those present to carry out orderly treatment. 3, general anesthesia will affect the intelligence of children, so never give a child to do general anesthesia. Not true. To answer this question, we must first clarify what is the mechanism of action of general anesthesia. General anesthesia is short for general anesthesia, refers to the anesthetic drug inhaled through the respiratory tract or by intravenous, intramuscular injection into the patient’s body, so that the patient appears to disappear pain, muscle relaxation, reduced reflex activity, etc.. This state of inhibition is controllable and reversible. During the operation, the anesthesiologist will adjust the dosage of anesthetic drugs to control the depth of anesthesia according to the progress of the operation, the patient’s condition and the results of monitoring of various vital signs. At the end of the surgery, the anesthesia drugs will be stopped, the anesthesia drugs will gradually metabolize and disappear from the body, and the patient will wake up slowly. A very small number of children may suffer from insomnia and short-term memory impairment of varying degrees within a week after surgery. Some parents then attribute these changes in their children after surgery to anesthesia-induced mental decline. In fact, surgery in children is a traumatic process and recovery takes time, which does not mean that the child’s intellectual development has been affected. Thousands of children in China undergo general anesthesia every year because they need surgical treatment, and some experience it multiple times. However, there is no data to show that general anesthesia has an adverse effect on the child’s intelligence, and intelligence is not measured as accurately as height and weight, and even the most sophisticated intelligence tests have limitations. Therefore, parents should not blame general anesthesia for their child’s unsatisfactory performance on an IQ test or exam. The psychological and intellectual development of children and adolescents is affected by many factors during their growth and development, and severe pain and fear can have serious adverse effects on the psychological and intellectual development of children. In order for the child to pass the surgery comfortably and safely, parents should put aside the concern that anesthesia will make people stupid and choose the appropriate anesthesia plan under the guidance of the doctor. 4. General anesthesia is the safest type of anesthesia. Not true. The choice of anesthesia is based on the patient’s age, surgical site, physical condition, and even economic conditions. Take the most familiar appendicitis as an example, for young children, the proportion of surgery requiring general anesthesia is higher because of poor cooperation. For young adults, intralesional anesthesia may be an option, but if the young person has an infection in the area of the lower back that needs to be punctured with a needle or has a curvature in the lumbar spine, then general anesthesia will also have to be used. At present, anesthesiology generally believes that there is no safest form of anesthesia, only the most appropriate anesthesia program. 5.Does the anesthesiologist just give “anesthetic injection” during the surgery? We all know that trauma is extremely harmful to human body, besides causing pain, it also leads to bleeding, nausea, vomiting and many other problems, which may be life-threatening if not treated in time. Surgery itself is also a kind of trauma, it is a way to treat a disease by having trauma, so it can also cause severe pain, bleeding and various other problems. The anesthesiologist’s job is to do what is necessary to minimize the damage caused by the trauma. The management of pain is only a small part of the anesthesiologist’s job. The successful completion of a surgery requires close cooperation between the surgeon, the anesthesiologist, the nurse, and all other aspects, and even the most common gallbladder removal surgery requires the efficient cooperation of at least seven health care professionals to complete successfully. Among them, anesthesiologists not only keep patients in anesthesia and feel no pain during surgery, but also maintain patients’ life safety so that their heart rate, blood pressure, and electrocardiographic changes fluctuate within a reasonable range, and if patients have cardiopulmonary and other abnormalities, they all need to be handled by anesthesiologists in a timely and effective manner. Some of the larger and riskier surgeries require more than three anesthesiologists to complete. During the entire operation, the anesthesiologist stays by the patient’s side, closely observes the progress of the operation and changes in the patient’s indicators, and will immediately deal with any abnormalities. At the end of the surgery, the patient is also allowed to wake up in time. After the patient leaves the operating room, the anesthesiologist will follow up with the patient the next day to review and summarize the quality of the anesthesia. Assuming that the anesthesiologist leaves the operating room after just one injection, it is no exaggeration to say that this patient will almost certainly lose his or her life due to the unstable nature of all vital signs. In other words, the anesthesiologist plays a pivotal role in the ability of a surgical patient to enter the operating room alive and then return to the hospital room uneventfully. Many surgical patients have the feeling that he or she definitely remembers the name of his or her surgeon, but cannot remember which physician did the anesthesia for him or her. Therefore, it may be more appropriate to use the term “behind-the-scenes hero” to describe the anesthesiologist.