Lung Diseases—Anesthesia

If you are having surgery, your doctor will give you medicine called an anesthetic. Anesthetics reduce or prevent pain. There are three main types:

• Local – numbs one small area of the body. You stay awake and alert.
• Regional – blocks pain in an area of the body, such an arm or leg. A common type is epidural anesthesia, which is often used during childbirth.
• General – makes you unconscious. You do not feel any pain, and you do not remember the procedure afterwards.

You may also get a mild sedative to relax you. You stay awake but may not remember the procedure afterwards. Sedation can be used with or without anesthesia.

The type of anesthesia or sedation you get depends on many factors. They include the procedure you are having and your current health.

• Conscious sedation for surgical procedures (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Epidural block (Medical Encyclopedia)
• General anesthesia (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Spinal and epidural anesthesia (Medical Encyclopedia)

When you breathe, your lungs take in oxygen from the air and deliver it to the bloodstream. The cells in your body need oxygen to work and grow. During a normal day, you breathe nearly 25,000 times. People with lung disease have difficulty breathing. Millions of people in the U.S. have lung disease. If all types of lung disease are lumped together, it is the number three killer in the United States.

The term lung disease refers to many disorders affecting the lungs, such as asthma, COPD, infections like influenza, pneumonia and tuberculosis, lung cancer, and many other breathing problems. Some lung diseases can lead to respiratory failure.

Dept. of Health and Human Services Office on Women’s Health

• Alveolar abnormalities (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Blood gases (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Breath sounds (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Chemical pneumonitis (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Chest tube insertion (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Coughing up blood (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Lung disease (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Lung PET scan (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Pulmonary edema (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Pulmonary function tests (Medical Encyclopedia)
• Solitary pulmonary nodule (Medical Encyclopedia)