“Why was son confrontational after anesthesia?”
After being under anesthesia, my son was suddenly combative. Could this have been from that? Why did he seem more confrontational and a little violent after being under general anesthesia?
5 Answers
Disinhibition. Usually very short in duration
It is not uncommon for a patient to be disinhibited on emergence from anesthesia.
Yes it’s very common in children under 10 who receive general inhalational anesthesia. Occasionally we see this in older kids. It’s called emergence delirium. It’s temporary.
There is context missing in this question. I am curious as to when did your son become combative? Was this in the recovery room or was this at home after being discharged from surgery? Often, parents receive their exposure to postoperative behavior of children after surgical or diagnostic procedures. A very common procedure is the placement of myringotomy tubes, i.e., pressure equalization tubes that are placed across the ear drum. This procedure is very short and the anesthetic exposure is short. Children with limited anesthetic exposure will still emerge (wake up) fussy, irritable, and even combative at times. This is a well known and documented phenomenon such that children are given sedatives or narcotics for their sedative properties so that this "phase" of post anesthesia is minimized, limited or missed altogether. Personally, I tend to give all my kids some amount of narcotic and I tell my parents that their children will be sleepy in recovery, but will be relaxed and calmer than kids that did not receive either a narcotic or sedative. So, without more details, this is what I can surmise from your scenario.
Best,
Beemeth Robles
Best,
Beemeth Robles
Dr. J. Arthur Saus
Anesthesiologist
One of the first effects of anesthesia is to reduce a patient's inhibitions, and those inhibitions may not return immediately at the completion of anesthesia. Even though enough anesthesia has "worn off" for a patient to again be "awake", that doesn't mean all the anesthetic agent has gone. Even though more modern inhalation anesthetic drugs leave the body more rapidly than they did many years ago, a patient is still exhaling anesthesia agents for many hours afterwards, If a patient has combative or violent tendencies, by taking away the inhibitions that keep these tendencies "in check", it is more likely they will be demonstrated for a while.
