Anesthesia

Anesthesia is the complete or partial loss of sensation induced by anesthetic drugs. Anesthetic drugs were strong sedative drugs used to numb a patient's sensation to pain to induce a deep sleep immediately prior to medical treatment, such as surgery. Anesthetics could be applied in varying degrees and forms depending on the patient's health and requirement of the medical procedure.

Some forms of anesthetic gases were flammable and had to be stored separately from those that were not. (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home)

Anesthetics were typically administered intravenously into the patient's bloodstream with a hypospray or syringe. (VOY: "Critical Care") Anesthetics also existed in gaseous form and could be administered on a large scale through a ship's ventilation system. An example of the last occurred when The Doctor and the USS Prometheus' EMH Mark II released neurozine gas to incapacitate Romulan Tal Shiar agents who had stolen the vessel. (VOY: "Message in a Bottle")

Anesthetic agents included:

• Anesthesia gas
• Anesthizine
• Anetrizine
• Axonol
• Hyvroxilated quint-ethyl metacetamin
• Melenex
• Methohexital
• Nasal numbing agent
• Neurazine gas
• Neurozine
• Plasti-skin

At the end of the final draft script for ENT: "Acquisition", an "anesthetic agent" is said to have been used to render three Ferengi – Ulis, Muk and Grish – unconscious. It is also established, in the script, that this anesthetic agent would take forty-eight hours to wear off. However, the anesthetic isn't referred to in the episode itself, with all three Ferengi conscious at the end of the installment.

External links

• Anesthesia at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• Anesthesia at Wikipedia
• Anesthesia at MedLine Plus
• Anesthesia at How Stuff Works