Category: An-An

The branch of medicine specializing in the use of drugs or other agents that cause insensibility to pain.

A physician or, less often, a dentist who is specialized in the practice of anesthesiology.

Anesthesia produced by injection of a local anesthetic into the caudal canal, the sacral portion of the spinal canal. Caudal anesthesia is used to provide anesthesia and analgesia (pain relief) below the umbilicus. It may be the sole anesthetic or combined with general anesthesia. Also known as caudal epidural anesthesia or a caudal block.

The situation that occurs when a patient under general anesthesia becomes aware of some or all events during surgery or a procedure, and has direct recall of those events. Because of the routine use of neuromuscular blocking agents (also called paralytics) during general anesthesia, the patient is often unable to communicate with the surgical team…

Loss of feeling or awareness, as when an anesthetic is administered before surgery.

A state of immune unresponsiveness. Induced when the T cell’s antigen receptor is stimulated, effectively freezing T cell responses pending a “second signal” from the antigen-presenting cell. The delivery of the second signal by the antigen-presenting cell rescues the activated T cell from anergy, allowing it to produce the lymphokines necessary for the growth of…

Anencephaly is a neural tube defect (NTD) that occurs when the cephalic (head) end of the neural tube fails to close, usually between the 23rd and 26th days of pregnancy, resulting in the absence of a major portion of the brain, skull, and scalp. Infants with this disorder are born without a forebrain, the largest part of the…

Anemic: Relating to anemia, the condition of having less than the normal number of red blood cells or less than the normal quantity of hemoglobin in the blood. The oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood is, therefore, decreased. Persons with anemia may feel tired and fatigue easily, appear pale, develop palpitations (feelings of rapid heart beating) and become unusually short of breath. Children with chronic anemia are prone to infections…

Anemia, sickle cell: A genetic blood disorder caused by the presence of an abnormal form of hemoglobin. These hemoglobin molecules tend to aggregate after unloading oxygen forming long, rod-like strictures that force the red cells to assume a sickle shape. Unlike normal red cells, which are usually smooth and malleable, the sickle red cells cannot squeeze through small…

Anemia that is unresponsive to treatment.