Safety considerations in the use of drug combinations during general anaesthesia.
The most commonly employed technique for providing general anaesthesia uses a balanced approach, where different drugs are used to reach specific desired endpoints. The variety of drugs used can result in a dozen or more different compounds being administered during a 'routine anaesthetic' procedure. Drug interactions are quite common and their clinical effects can be very significant. Clinically, general anaesthesia has 4 goals. These are: unconsciousness/amnesia; analgesia; muscle relaxation and maintenance of homeostasis. The anaesthesiologist tries to select only those drugs that permit a rapid onset of desirable operative conditions so that surgery can be performed properly and rapidly. Such drugs should also minimally disturb the patient's preoperative homeostatic maintenance, and maximise return to a desirable postanaesthetic functional state.
Ransom
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Department of Anaesthesiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA.
Mueller
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D000768:Anesthesia, General / Q000009:adverse effects; D019162:Anesthetics, Combined / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors*; D004338:Drug Combinations; D004347:Drug Interactions; D004361:Drug Tolerance; D006706:Homeostasis / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D011229:Preanesthetic Medication / Q000009:adverse effects
D019162:Anesthetics, Combined; D004338:Drug Combinations