| The Home page of ILPI's Safety Data Sheet (SDS) Resource, the leader in SDS information since 1995! | |
| The history and philosophy behind this resource. | |
| A curated collection of books and reference materials concerning Safety Data Sheets and closely related topics. | |
| Paste your plain text SDS into the SDS-Demystifier, and it will be converted into a hypertext-enriched document with links to detailed explanations of each key term. | |
| An extensive list of frequently asked questions about Safety Data Sheets including regulations, content, compliance, and more. | |
| A humorous take on Safety Data Sheet jargon. Fill in the blanks on our entry form to generate a personalized Unsafety Data Sheet to share with your coworkers. | |
| Since 1995, we've maintained this massive curated list of the best places to find Safety Data Sheets on the Internet. | |
| You are here! Way more than a glossary, this hypertext-enhanced resource covers hundreds of SDS-related terms and expert knowledge. Each entry includes both the SDS relevance and links to additional authoritative resources. | |
| Archived results of Safety Data Sheet related polls taken by some of our millions of site visitors | |
| The OSHA regulations behind SDS regulations, including the inspection guidelines and over 400 official interpretations letters under the Hazard Communication Standard | |
| Commercial suppliers of SDS authoring and management software as well as cloud compliance services. | |
| Commercial companies that will create SDS's for your specific needs as well as SDS translation companies. |
Safety signs, banners, and scoreboards? Get yours at Safety Emporium!
Anesthesia
Definition
Anesthesia is a loss of sensation or feeling. Anaesthesia is an alternate spelling (Brit).
Additional Info
Safety Emporium carries all kinds of eye/face washes, safety showers, drench hoses and more.
Anesthesia (or "anesthetics") is often used deliberately by doctors and dentists to block pain and other sensations during surgical procedures. Treatment for pre- or postoperative pain is called analgesia.
Local anesthesia is used to numb pain in a very localized region of your body. For example, novocaine injections are used to perform simple dental procedures such as fillings and for suturing small lacerations in one's finger.
Regional anesthesia blocks pain to a larger region of body and is generally divided into two types. A peripheral nerve block is injected near one or more nerves to numb regions such as a single arm or leg. This allows a doctor to perform surgery with lower risk than general anesthesia (below) in which the patient is unconscious. Spinal anesthesia involves injecting an anesthetic into the cerebrospinal fluid surrounding the spinal cord. Epidural anesthesia is similar, but the effects are usually limited to segments of the spine and, therefore, more specific parts of the body. Typical uses for these kinds of anesthesia are for outpatient knee surgeries and childbirth.
General anesthesia puts the patient into a carefully controlled and reversible state of unconsciousness. Patients are usually given a series of medications using intravenous drugs or inhaled gases to induce amnesia, analgesia, and sedation.
Books Available
NOTE: We may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links in the following list:
- "Miller's Basics of Anesthesia, 8th Ed", Hardcover, 2022. Estimated price $96.54. Info and/or order.
- "Clinical Anesthesia, 9th Ed", Hardcover, 2023. Estimated price $230.34. Info and/or order.
- "Duke's Anesthesia Secrets", Paperback, 2020. Estimated price $46.99. Info and/or order.
SDS Relevance
Exposure to certain chemicals or anesthetics such as nitrous oxide may reduce your ability to feel pain. That may sound great, but this presents a serious hazard. Imagine having no sensations of pain in your everyday life - you might not notice that you have put your hand on a hot stove and suffered third degree burns until you smelled the charred flesh. Ugh!
If a substance has anesthetic effects, that should appear in Section 11 (toxicological information) of the Safety Data Sheet.
Further Reading
- Anesthesia, at the NIH's MedLine Plus, has all kinds of great info links.
- Anesthesia 101 at the American Society of Anesthesiologists.
- Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation's mission is "To ensure that no patient is harmed by anesthesia".
- General Anesthesia at WebMD.
- Anesthesiology links at the U of IL College of Medicine.
- Waste Anesthetic Gases at OSHA discusses how unintended exposure to anesthetic gases can pose a hazard to health care workers.
See also: analgesia, asphyxiant.