What are some of the important advances in anesthesia?
By far the most important are those that have increased the safety of administering anesthesia. The risk of death or significant injury from anesthesia is extremely low with technology such as pulse oxymetry, which continually measures the level of oxygen in the patient’s blood, and capnography, which measures the patient’s exhaled carbon dioxide. This helps confirm the proper placement of breathing devices that secure the patient’s airway. Automation in the operating room, such as automated blood pressure, electrocardiograms, and other technologies, provide continuous updated information about the patient. Another important advance is the expanded use of regional anesthesia (nerve blocks), which minimizes the undesirable effects of general anesthesia. Nerve blocks can last for several hours after surgery, giving the patient significant pain relief after the procedure. The result is that patients need less pain medication and their regimen of pain medication is shorter. A considerable
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