General anesthesia
General anesthesia is a state of controlled unconsciousness. During a general anaesthetic, medications are used to send you to sleep, so you're unaware of surgery and don't move or feel pain while it's carried out.
While there are many types and levels of anesthesia - medication to keep you from feeling pain during surgery, general anesthesia is most commonly used for major operations, such as knee and hip replacements, heart surgeries, and many types of surgical procedures to treat cancer. These surgeries are lifesaving or life-changing and would not be possible without general anesthesia.
Local anesthesia
Today, many types of surgery can be safely and painlessly performed while awake. Local anesthesia, also called local anaesthetic, is usually a one-time injection of medicine that numbs a small area of the body. It is used for procedures such as performing a skin biopsy or breast biopsy, repairing a broken bone, or stitching a deep cut. You will be awake and alert, and you may feel some pressure, but you won't feel pain in the area being treated.
Regional anesthesia
Regional anesthesia uses local anaesthetics to block pain sensations from a large area of the body. Regional anesthesia allows a procedure to be done on a region of the body without your being unconscious.
Regional anesthesia medication is delivered through an injection or small tube called a catheter. It is used when a simple local anaesthetic injection is not enough and the patient should be awake.
This anesthesia, including spinal blocks and epidurals, is often used for childbirth. An epidural is the most common pain control used for labour and delivery. It allows the mother to be awake and push when it's time to deliver the baby but numbs the pain. Another type of regional anesthesia, a spinal block, is more substantial and is used during procedures such as cesarean deliveries, also known as C-sections. Spinal blocks and epidurals allow the doctor to surgically deliver the baby without causing pain to the mother and without subjecting the baby to sedating drugs that might be harmful.
Conscious Sedation
Conscious sedation is a combination of medicines to help you relax and block pain during a medical procedure. Conscious sedation lets you recover quickly and return to your everyday activities soon after your procedure.
Sedation
Today, physicians have many ways to make sure their patients are as comfortable as possible during surgery or procedures for diagnosing medical conditions. One common type of pain control is sedation, which relaxes you and sometimes makes you fall asleep. Sedation, also known as monitored anesthesia care, conscious sedation, or twilight sedation, is typically used for minor surgeries or shorter, less complex procedures when a local anaesthetic injection isn't sufficient but more profound general anesthesia isn't necessary. These procedures might include some types of biopsies or involve using a scope to examine the throat or colon to find and treat medical conditions such as cancer.
An analgesic is a medication used to achieve analgesia or pain relief and is often combined with sedation. Procedures using sedation and analgesics may be performed in a hospital or an outpatient setting, such as a same-day surgery centre, your physician's office, or a dentist's office.
Services are rendered at the following Hospitals
Mediclinic Hospitals:
Mediclinic Bloemfontein
Mediclinic Welkom
Mediclinic George
Mediclinic Upington
Life Healthcare Hospitals:
Life Rosepark Hospital
Life Knysna Private Hospital
Informational Documents
