anesthesia

or an·aes·the·sia

[ an-uhs-thee-zhuh ]

noun

1. Medicine/Medical. general or local insensibility, as to pain and other sensation, induced by certain interventions or drugs to permit the performance of surgery or other painful procedures.
2. Pathology. general loss of the senses of feeling, as pain, heat, cold, touch, and other less common varieties of sensation.
3. Psychiatry. absence of sensation due to psychological processes, as in conversion disorders.

anesthesia

/ ˌænɪsˈθiːzɪə /

noun

1. See anaesthesia
   the usual US spelling of anaesthesia

anesthesia

/ ăn′ĭs-thē′zhə /

1. Total or partial loss of sensation to touch or pain, caused by nerve injury or disease, or induced intentionally, especially by the administration of anesthetic drugs, to provide medical treatment. The first public use of ether to anesthetize a patient in Boston in 1846 initiated widespread acceptance of anesthetics in the Western world for surgical procedures and obstetrics. General anesthesia, administered as inhalation or intravenous agents, acts primarily on the brain, resulting in a temporary loss of consciousness. Regional or local anesthesia affects sensation in a specific anatomic area, and includes topical application of local anesthetics, blocking of peripheral nerves, spinal anesthesia, and epidural anesthesia, which is used commonly during childbirth.

anesthesia

1. Loss of sensation or consciousness. Anesthesia can be induced by an anesthetic , by acupuncture , or as the result of injury or disease.

Word History and Origins

Origin of anesthesia¹

1715–25; < New Latin < Greek anaisthēsía want of feeling. See an- ¹, esthesia

Example Sentences

A procedure to reopen his urinary tract could have been done under local anesthesia.

From The Daily Beast

He has had operations on both knees, and they had to put him under anesthesia to clean a long gash in his left thigh.

From The Daily Beast

The story of a wayward anesthesia trainee who took a near fatal dose of fentanyl hit the news this week.

From The Daily Beast

Someof the injured were being detained right after they awoke from anesthesia.

From The Daily Beast

"I told him that the sleep you get with anesthesia is not real sleep, not restful sleep," Quinn testified.

From The Daily Beast

There was enough whiskey in the place to provide the new specimen with a near-total anesthesia.

From Project Gutenberg

Anesthesia from it sets in more rapidly and lasts longer than with cocaine.

From Project Gutenberg

While hypnotism can be used to produce anesthesia, it has many disadvantages.

From Project Gutenberg

One element that is extremely important for anesthesia is deep breathing.

From Project Gutenberg

Feldman operated with a pocketknife sterilized in a bottle of expensive Scotch and only anodyne tablets in place of anesthesia.

From Project Gutenberg