Pain, Numbness, Pain
Many patients when injected with general anesthetics state that they feel a burning sensation. Scientists at Georgetown University have discovered what causes that burning sensation. When injected, the anesthetics spark an ion protein called TRPA1. TRPA1 is on the sensory neurons and located in the body tissues. After TRPA1 is sparked the nerves "get hot" and the patient starts to feel the burning pain. The anesthetics that causes the pain and swelling are called noxious, which are pungent anesthetics. The chemical structure of the noxious determines if the cell will instigate the pain. Many tests have been done and the results of the tests are that TRPA1 is activated by pungent anesthetics and not by non-pungent anesthetics. Doctors inject the anesthetic into the patient to put them into an unconscious state, but they also inject the patient with another anesthetic (mostly lidocaine) to dull the burning pain of the general anesthetic.
Physiologist Matthew Jones from the University of Wisconsin explains that now that researchers have a better sense of where the pain is coming from they can design better anesthetics that don't activate TRPA1 or by using TRPA1 blockers with other drugs. They are finding it hard to find an anesthetic that will do that and still be strong enough to make the patient unconscious during surgery. Non-pungent anesthetics have been tested and doesn't cause a burning sensation, but it has side effects of it's own. For example one non-pungent anesthetic can cause cardiac arrhythmias, which is abnormal electrical activity in the heart. For now anesthesiologists have to choose to use pungent or non-pungent anesthetics based upon the patients condition and medical history.
My response:
I thought this article was pretty interesting. I never realized that something like anesthetics could not only help someone, but could also hurt them. It's amazing to see how far humans have come in the way of medicine and how it can effect a person in such a way to cause them pain. It also gave me comfort to know that people in the science and medical area are trying to make patients as comfortable as possible.
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/33511/title/Pain%2C_numbness%2C_pain
posted by Stephanie R @ 1:09 PM
5 Comments:
I like how they have to inject you with an anesthetic for your anesthetic. I've never had an anesthetic administered, but I would think I would rather have a burning sensation over whatever pain they are originally injecting me for. I wonder what TRPA1 is, like maybe the body reacts with that sensation because an unidentified substance just made its way into, not to mention around a problem area, perhaps if you are having surgery or something. It would definitely be unfortunate if you got heart arrhythmias from a simple procedure involving anesthetics. It probably happened to someone, for them to know that.
I agree that it is ironic to use an anesthetic for an anesthetic. I have gone under in the past, but both times it was with gas, so on this burning sensation, I can't say anything. I wonder as well what TRPA1 is and how what exactly does to cells to make that burning feeling. One does have to way the good with the bad here: will he (or she) mind the burn, or would he rather have the second anesthetic with the risk of heart arrhythmia? It's a testy issue, with I'm sure in more extreme cases, like for example a more aged person, the possiblility of heart attack. Which way to go...?
This really interesting to find out that an anesthetic could cause a burning sensation. From my experience I don't remember any burning sensation but the doctors did give some sort of gas to initially 'knock me out'. Its nice to know that researchers are working on how to fix this problem and that they are generally concernerd for our comfort. How something could react to cause a burning sensation is out of the usual, yet amazing that they know what is causing it.
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It would make more sense to find an anesthetic that would work without the burning sensation than using an anesthetic and then another one to cover up the pain caused by the first one. I'm glad they are working on a solution to this issue. I'm also glad that doctors choose which anesthetic to use depending on the person. It would be bad for a person with a weak heart or heart issue to be injected with the anesthetic that cause cardiac arrhythmias. This anesthetic wouldn't be as harmful on someone with a strong heart because they would be able to handle it.
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