What Is the Connection between Anesthesia and Critical Care?

Anesthesia and critical care are entwined because of their importance in patient health. In a way, anesthesia makes critical care significantly easier, if not entirely possible. Administrations of anesthesia are essential in most surgical procedures, and surgery is the backbone of much critical care. In addition, anesthesia can significantly impact the success of critical care.

Administration of anesthesia is a fixture in health care, with a particularly strong link between anesthesia and critical care. This practice involves providing the patient with numbing agents that dull sensation and pain sensitivity. Anesthesia is usually given in the form of intravenous drugs. Many of these pharmaceuticals also put the patient into an unconscious state.

Critical care — or intensive care — is one of the most crucial and complex components of health care. Related procedures will address the most serious and often life-threatening conditions. As such, the patient is extra vulnerable to complications, like extreme pain. Further, the patient's dependence on medical staff and tools is at its peak, so maintaining a strong connection and balance between anesthesia and critical care becomes an important foundation for proper care and recovery. In many cases, the most severe conditions require surgery.

Surgical procedures involve cutting into skin, muscles, and organs. Each of these areas is covered with receptors and nerves that strongly respond to damage or disturbance. A surgery in the absence of numbing agents would induce a great deal of pain in the patient. Extreme pain can send a patient’s body into shock, which could be life-threatening. Patient comfort and the prevention of complications are thus the primary beneficial links between anesthesia and critical care.

The impact of anesthesia is not exclusive to surgery, however. Anesthetic agents may be used as analgesics, or pain relievers, in any number of conditions, ranging from punctured organs to post-operative pain management. The latter use is of particular importance, because a patient is most vulnerable to infections and other setbacks in the time immediately following a major procedure. In addition, anesthesia affects the body's sympathetic nervous system that controls body organs.

Anesthesia and critical care are not immune to potential risks. Testing standards for anesthesia drugs and qualifications for administration are rigorous, and equipment and dosing procedures are improved with each passing year. Complications do arise, however. Patients may develop adverse reactions to drugs due to allergies or other unforeseen factors like blood pressure fluctuations. Despite all precautions, errors in dosing do sometimes occur as well. Since medications must be so precisely weighted for each patient, any misstep could result in a medical disaster.