Anaesthesia is Causing More Deaths

Deaths caused by anaesthesia are increasing . A German study published in a medical journal
states that more people are dying after operations because of anaesthesia than before. The reason
for this is that, because of modern medicine, more and more older patients undergo operations.
5 More than 70 years ago, for every one million patients that were operated on, about 640 died
during or shortly after an operation. By the end of the 1980s that rate was down to four per one
million operations, thanks to modern medicine and new forms of anaesthesia. A recent study
however shows that this rate is up again to seven anaesthesia-related deaths per one million
operations.
10 The study states that, on average, patients who undergo operations have become older.
Performing an operation, for example, on an eighty-year old is riskier than one on a twenty-year
old. Anaesthesia can be especially risky if patients have heart problems or high blood pressure.
In certain circumstances it can lead to death.
During an operation anaesthetists watch the patient’s breathing, heart rate and blood
15 ressure. It is up to them to decide the amount of drugs that a patient should get. In rare
situations a patient is allergic to certain anaesthetics. When complications due to anaesthesia
arise, the whole operating team must react quickly to get the situation under control.
Methods of anaesthesia have changed over the ages. Ancient civilizations gave patients plants
like poppy or alcohol to stop pain. In the 1800s laughing gas was discovered as a means of
20 anaesthesia.
Modern anaesthesia uses a series of drugs during operations. First, doctors give patients a
strong painkiller, then a drug that puts them to sleep. Finally, anaesthetists give them a drug that
stops muscle movement.
Although medicine is constantly making progress and new and better aesthetic drugs are being
25 discovered, operations under full anaesthesia remain risky. In such cases communication among
the whole operating team is necessary.

Source : https://www.english-online.at/news-articles/health-medicine/anaesthesia-causing-
more-deaths.htm