Do Patients Really Have a Choice in Anaesthesia and Surgery Essay

Do Patients Really Have a Choice in Anaesthesia and Surgery - Essay Example The mere condition of having sensation blocked or the nerves being desensitized is not accepted by many and there may be each to their own reasoning for it. The anesthesia is used to avoid the person undergoing surgery from pain or distress. For different issues, different kinds of anesthesia may be used. There is general, local, regional and dissociative anesthesia, each one used in different cases as each one has their own varying effects. Consent, is now an integral part of pre anesthetic consultation. Nowadays, given the evolved role within the health institutions, plus the legal and ethical issues, the patients are informed about the procedure they will be subjected to during the surgery. Disclosure of information seems to be the most legal and ethical discussion in the consent process. Given the function of any anesthesia, this consent is vital. This reinforces the idea that the given ‘consent’ to the patient before any surgery, is not actually being asked to accep t a procedure but is being offered a range of options from which to choose. Any medical profession indeed respects the patient’s reasoned choice and their right in law to refuse treatments. As anesthetists, the consent process can serve more than one purpose. It protects the practitioner from any ethical or legal issues. It ensures that the patient has agreed to the given way of treatment. The consent is a representation of the choice the patients have today in this. (Slater. R, 2007) No matter what examination or treatment one has to undergo, one may ask their anesthetist if there is any choice in the anesthetic method. One should also understand that some surgeons are more content operating on patients who have received one form of anesthetic rather than another. This most often means that the patient has a general anesthetic, which involves temporary unconsciousness. The article on All about Anesthesia, Do you have a choice, talks about the surgeon not having to choose the type of anesthesia one will receive, unless there is no anesthesia involved in one’s case. (2012) However, the surgeon may discuss the choice with the patient and with their anesthetist. In the same way, ones anesthetist does not choose what operation one will have or how it will be carried out. Again, ones anesthetist may discuss the operation with the patient and the surgeon, particularly if one has special anesthesia problems. The type of anesthesia varies with the given situation. Example for a finger ligament being torn off or the finger’s bone being broken may allow for local anesthesia, this type of a surgery allows a choice from the range of anesthesia. On the other side, during a caesarian, spinal or epidural anesthesia can be used. This type of scenario may allow less choice for the patient because general anesthesia may be harmful to the baby. Another case may involve a heart surgery, which will involve the use of general anesthesia and confine the choice o f the patient. Given the intensity of the situation like a heart surgery, a patient can not choose spinal anesthesia for their own good. This aspect suggests that a patient’s choice depends on the situation they are in. The beginning of this article stated a brief case where the patient would not agree to get their sensation paralyzed for a while, may be due to a range of reasons. These may involve the patient not approving the idea of losing control, issue of allergy,