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Published online 23 June 2008 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2008.909

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Anaesthetics worsen post-operative pain

General anaesthetic can paradoxically increase pain after surgery.

General anaesthetics can worsen postoperative pain, suggests a new study in mice. The discovery could help surgeons avoid picking the most painful drugs or lead to alternative ways of relieving post-surgery pain.

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  • If so, then some Chinese heroes, such as Guan Yu in acient times and Liu Bocheng (the General of PLA)in modern times, are very wise to be physically operated without anaesthetics. But that really needs some courage and patience

    • 24 Jun, 2008
    • Posted by: Wang Min
  • Hi, General anaesthetic can paradoxically increase pain after surgery. General anaesthetic poses Lipophilicity which increases there half life in the body. Pain is a signal which when suppressed reacts. The mechanism is a complex mixture of chemistry and psychiatry. The vertebral anaesthetic should be more employed. Regards Dr. Terence Hale

    • 25 Jun, 2008
    • Posted by: Terence Hale
  • As any pharmacologist would tell you, switching off GABA receptors will produce convulsions, not a loss of consciousness. Thus, many anaesthetics work by enhancing the activity of inhibitory postsynaptic GABA-A receptors.

    • 28 Jun, 2008
    • Posted by: Helen Gray