In modern medicine, anesthetics are often used, which not only alleviate the pain of patients but also provide good conditions for doctors to treat and save people. But there is a question: Will anesthetics affect the normal functioning of the brain when they act on the nerves? Will there be any adverse effects? Therefore, many patients hold a negative attitude towards anesthesia, so does anesthesia really affect intelligence?

Understanding anesthesia originally refers to the loss of sensation or perception, but later refers to a state in which patients do not feel pain or discomfort during surgery or invasive procedures. Clinical anesthesia can be simply divided into general anesthesia, spinal anesthesia, and local anesthesia.

Below is an overview of the development history of modern anesthesia: 1) In 1540, ether was introduced; 2) In October 1846, American dentists administered ether inhalation anesthesia to patients, which caused a sensation worldwide; 3) In 1847, British doctors used chloroform for labor analgesia, bringing it into clinical practice. Subsequently, nitric oxide entered the anesthesia stage. After more than 30 years of practice, tracheal intubation, balloon ventilation, intravenous anesthesia, and muscle relaxants have emerged one after another, and anesthesia techniques are becoming increasingly sophisticated.

Can anesthesia make you stupid? Can anesthesia make people stupid? The reason why anesthesia can eliminate pain, in simple terms, is that drugs act on the nervous system, blocking the transmission of pain signals, making the brain unable to receive pain signals, which is a temporary "paralysis" of the brain, so that we cannot feel pain throughout the body. Many people will immediately ask, since anesthesia acts on the nerves, will it in turn damage the nerves and brain and become stupid? Actually, you don't have to worry. First of all, we need to know how the brain becomes foolish: mainly due to hypoxia and ischemia in the cerebral cortex, brain cells are irreversibly damaged. Modern anesthesia has been established for over a century, eliminating many anesthetics with significant side effects. The general anesthetics used in modern anesthesia are drugs with high safety, minimal impact on the human body, and fast metabolic time. After surgery, they can be completely eliminated through human metabolism. Moreover, after decades of drug research, the effects of inhalation and intravenous anesthetics on the central nervous system have shown initial results: for young adults with well-developed brains, these drugs have no effect; The current research findings may have an impact on children and the elderly who are experiencing the development or degradation of the central nervous system. Some elderly people may experience a certain degree of decline in learning ability, memory, and attention in the short term after undergoing major surgery, and can return to normal after a few days, while a very small number of people may not be able to recover for months or even permanently. In addition, modern clinical anesthesia technology is already very advanced, and anesthesia is completed under close monitoring by anesthesia machines. Anesthesia machines have functions such as ventilator assisted ventilation, monitoring blood pressure, blood oxygen saturation, heart rate, and even carbon dioxide concentration. Generally, there is no such situation as cerebral ischemia and hypoxia during surgery, so you don't need to worry! Of course, anesthesia still carries certain risks, which are mainly related to the patient's physical conditions, the disease they suffer from, and the surgery they undergo.

Anesthesia Protects Surgery! Every year, tens of millions of people worldwide use general anesthesia for surgery. Practice has shown that with the correct use of professionals, general anesthesia does not have any impact on intelligence. If you are a young or middle-aged person with a healthy central nervous system, there is no need to worry too much about the impact of general anesthesia on intelligence. However, if the central nervous system of the anesthesia subject is still in the developmental stage or has already aged and declined, there should still be a mystery in your heart that affects intelligence. However, I would like to say that you should not avoid surgical treatment just because you are afraid of such an impact. This is where the value of an anesthesiologist is reflected. Doctors will do their best to protect you and minimize the possibility of anesthesia affecting intelligence.