General Anaesthesia Puts You in Coma

An anaesthesia-induced coma, being drug induced, is reversible

The brain under general anaesthesia isn’t ‘asleep’ as most surgery patients believe. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine by three neuroscientists shows that under anaesthesia, the brain is ushered into a reversible coma. The researchers explain that the activity of a fully anaesthetised brain resembles the deeply unconscious low-brain activity seen in coma patients rather than a brain that is merely asleep.

The difference between an anaesthesia-induced coma and a regular coma is that the former is reversible, the effect being measured in minutes or hours. Recovery from a regular coma could take hours to days to years, if ever.

This insight could eventually lead to improved diagnosis and treatment of sleep abnormalities and surer recovery from comas. “These findings show that general anaesthesia is a reversible coma, and learning about the different ways we can safely place the brain into this state, with fewer side effects and risks, could be an important advance in general anaesthesiology,” explains Dr Brown, a co-author of the paper. “Also, in a scientific sense, monitoring brain function under general anaesthesia gives us new insights into how the brain works in order to develop new sleep aids and new ways for patients to recover from coma.”