Study suggests approach to waking patients after surgery
The use of general anesthesia for surgery has not changed fundamentally since it was first introduced 170 years ago. Patients are still left to come around in their own time following withdrawal of the drug. However, some patients can take a considerable amount of time to wake up, holding up the use of expensive operating rooms and occupying medical staff who must keep them under close observation. Now researchers at MIT and Massachusetts General Hospital have moved a step closer to a treatment to rapidly awaken patients after administration of a general anesthetic, following a study of the mechanism that allows people to regain consciousness. In a paper published today in the journal PNAS, the researchers demonstrate that activating dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) of the brain causes active emergence from general anesthesia. This is important because the mechanism by which we regain consciousness following general anesthetic has so far been...