Deaths after anesthesia increased slightly

Dangerous anesthesia: deaths after anesthesia increased slightly

02/08/2011

While the number of deaths after anesthesia continued to decline until the end of the 20th century, recent surveys show a slight increase in death rates after anesthesia.

As late as the 1940s, around 640 out of a million anesthetized patients died annually as a result of anesthesia. However, with higher safety standards and better education, the death rate fell to just four out of a million patients by the late '80s. Now that has „German Medical Journal“ However, a study has been published, according to which in recent years, a resurgence of the worldwide mortality rate after anesthesia from four to seven out of a million anesthesia patients was recorded.

Increased deaths in the following year of anesthesia
In addition to the increase in the death rate immediately after anesthesia, the number of deaths one year after an operation under general anesthesia is alarmingly high, reports „German Medical Journal“. As a result, approximately every twentieth patient dies in the following year after anesthesia. In patients over the age of 65, even one in ten will not survive the following year. As justification, the experts cite the growing proportion of older patients who have to undergo multiple previous illnesses. For the already weakened people, anesthesia can sometimes be a significant health risk. Anesthesia caused by surgery, for example, can become a serious problem in 80-year-old patients who may already have had a heart attack or have blood pressure problems. Because „Anesthesia and surgery are stressful for the body“, stressed study author André Gottschalk in the „German Medical Journal“. Although it is still a rarity, „that a patient dies during surgery, but in patients with severe pre-existing conditions, post-traumatic stress after prolonged surgery can potentially lead to death“, explained Gottschalk.

High drop in blood pressure during anesthesia
The possible problems in the context of anesthesia are diverse and highly dependent on the fundamental health of the patients, the experts report. In general, modern anesthesia today comprises several chronologically sequential steps. In simple terms, patients are given a strong analgesic in advance, followed by a highly effective sleeping drug, such as propofol, to put them in a trance-like state and, lastly, an agent that eliminates the patient's ability to move by transmitting signals from the brain to the muscles of movement is interrupted. In this case, usually relatively high dosages are required for the induction of anesthesia, whereby the blood pressure of the patient often drops sharply. However, at this point each body reacts differently and not always as expected, reports study author André Gottschalk. So be for example „In overweight patients it is sometimes difficult to estimate the correct dosage of the anesthetic because the fatty tissue does not need anesthetics, explained Gottschalk. However, this may cause an overdose, which in turn can bring a sharp drop in blood pressure, the study author emphasized.

Do not underestimate the risks of anesthesia
Although massive progress has been made in modern anesthesia since its introduction in the 19th century, physicians and patients should be aware of the risks and never underestimate them, the experts warn. Because the recovery of the death rate and the number of deaths the following year after anesthesia, paint a worrying picture. However, the finely adjusted system of modern anesthesia from conventional medicine is indispensable today, because many interventions would be necessary „just not possible“, if patients are not relieved of pain, explained Michael Sander, Deputy Director of the Charité Anesthesiology Clinic „World Online“. Thus, particularly painful interventions were already performed in antiquity in the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans under anesthesia of the patients, for example, poppy, henbane or alcohol were used as painkillers or anesthetics. (Fp)

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Picture: Jens Goetzke