ANESTHETIC

Anesthetic

An anesthetic is a drug that causes anesthesia—reversible loss of sensation. They contrast with analgesics, which relieve pain without eliminating sensation. These drugs are generally administered to facilitate surgery. A wide variety of drugs are used in modern anesthetic practice. Many are rarely used outside of anesthesia, although others are used commonly by all disciplines. Anesthetics are categorized into two classes: general anesthetics, which cause a reversible loss of consciousness, and local anesthetics, which cause a reversible loss of sensation for a limited region of the body while maintaining consciousness. Combinations of anesthetics are sometimes ...

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anesthetic

Noun

  1. A substance administered to reduce the perception of pain or to induce numbness. An anesthetic may or may not render the recipient unconscious, depending upon the type used.

Adjective

  1. Causing the reduction of pain sensitivity.


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: anesthetic
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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