Hair transplantation is a surgical process. Like all surgeries, hair transplantation processes almost always involve cutting up the body. It involves the cutting of usually delicate parts of the head or other parts of the body containing hair, which is the donor part.
Then, it also involves cutting the part of the head, which is experiencing some form of balding or another. We can all agree that whenever surgeries are carried out, they are not usually comfortable. In addition, when the cutting is being done, patients will experience pain.
This can lead to other conditions such as severe fatigue, headache, migraine, and other conditions. What becomes the result is that carrying out the entire hair transplantation is prolonged even further. The post-surgery phase becomes much further complicated, as a lot of care must be administered to the patient at this stage.
However, if the right procedures are put in place, the process becomes much shorter, and it will greatly reduce the tasks to be carried out post-surgery. On their part, the patients also go through a speedy recovery phase, and in almost no time, they get integrated back into society to continue their normal day-to-day lives.
What is Anesthesia?
To reduce the impact the hair transplantation process will have on the patient in terms of physical discomfort; some preliminary tasks are carried out. These preliminary tasks are necessary to be done to as much as possible prevent a situation where the patient will go through lots of pain. If properly carried out, the patient will only go through minimal and limited discomfort rather.
One of such processes that are carried out to reduce the pain and discomfort that a patient goes through during and after a hair transplant surgery is Anesthesia.
Anesthesia may mean different things as it exists in several forms. However, there is a common conception of the term. Generally, anesthesia is aimed at reducing the pain felt by patients during surgery. It typically involves administering drugs, medications, or injections before the surgery to ensure that they do not feel discomfort.
Types of Anesthesia
Anesthesia exists in four (4) major forms. They are General, Local, Sedation, and Regional. We will be addressing these four main types, and which is best for your hair graft surgery.
General Anesthesia
When people hear the word “Anesthesia,” what they usually think of is General Anesthesia. During general anesthesia, the patient is rendered unconscious and cannot be aware of any sensations. To induce this phase, the surgeon may administer several different medications. Alternatively, other methods are used to induce the patient to fall unconscious. For instance, there are now anesthetic gasses that are administered to the patient through breathing tubes.
The benefits of general anesthesia are that it relaxes the muscles, induces sleep, and contributes to treating pain arising from surgery. Usually, when the patient wakes up after the surgery is done, such a patient might not remember anything that happened.
Regional Anesthesia
When we hear “regional,” we think of a particular part of a general area, like the Southern or Northern regions of a country. That is the same way it works in the case of regional anesthesia. What regional anesthesia does is that it makes a part of the body unconscious and numb to any feelings of pain. In essence, that part of the body does not experience or feel any sensations whatsoever.
The part of the body, in this case, is usually the one to which the surgery will be administered. For instance, for surgery on the leg, the entire lower parts of the body may be rendered unconscious so that the patient will not feel any pain during the process. Then, the anesthesiologist in charge will inject a numbing medication on the series of nerves that serve that area of the body.
Local Anesthesia
Local anesthesia is the most limited in terms of area of application. Here, medications are only applied to only a small area of the body. For instance, a surgical process on the fingers does not warrant the entire arm being rendered numb. Instead, the particular hand may be only affected.
However, in actual fact, local anesthesia is used for minor processes such as stitching up a deep injury.
Sedation
Sedation is also called monitored anesthesia care. The types of sedation range from mild to deep sedation, where the patient falls into a deep sleep. However, sedation is never as severe as general anesthesia.
Anesthesia in the hair transplant
In the hair graft process, anesthesia is also administered. However, not just any form of anesthesia is administered. Usually, the expert surgeon in charge will prescribe the form to be applied to a particular patient.
Nevertheless, for most hair transplant patients, the type of anesthesia administered is usually local anesthesia with some minor forms of sedation, in some cases.
The minor sedation is administered to calm the patient down and relieve them of whatever fear or anxiety that they might be experiencing. This minor sedation assists the patient in relaxing and induces some form of sleepiness properly. On the other hand, local anesthesia helps to numb any feelings of pain largely. However, with the local anesthesia, the patient is still very conscious and can respond to their surroundings and stimuli from the surgeon.
Benefits
Generally, the direct implications of carrying out anesthesia involve reducing the pain that a patient feels during surgery. At times, the patient might not even be aware of when the surgery is being carried out. The benefits derived from this include the fact that the patient experiences a smooth recovery process with greatly reduced discomfort. Also, the entire surgery and recovery process is greatly reduced.
Are There Any Side Effects of Anesthesia?
There are chances that some complications may occur due to undesired reactions when local anesthesia is applied. However, we have to note that these reactions can be said to be rare.
In Conclusion
Anesthesia is one of those crucial processes aimed at making the hair graft surgery much more seamless, smooth, and less strenuous than it normally would be. However, it must be properly administered. Here, we have provided a comprehensive overview of the practice of anesthesia and the necessary precautions needed to be taken.
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