Types of Anesthesia and Anesthesia Services

Anesthesia Service by the Surgeon: Anesthesia services personally furnished by the physician performing the surgical, therapeutic or diagnostic procedure are considered an integral component of the primary procedure. This may include local injections, regional blocks, and intravenous medication. General anesthesia administered and monitored by the surgeon is not considered medically appropriate.

Balanced Anesthesia: Anesthesia that uses a combination of drugs, each in an amount sufficient to produce its major or desired effect to the optimum degree and keep its undesirable or unnecessary effects to a minimum.

Bier Block/ Bier’s Local Anesthesia: Regional anesthesia produced by intravenous injection, used for surgical procedures on the arm below the elbow or the leg below the knee; performed in a bloodless field maintained by a pneumatic tourniquet that also prevents the anesthetic from entering the systemic circulation.

Brachial Plexus Block/Brachial Plexus Anesthesia: Regional anesthesia of the shoulder, arm, and hand by injection of a local anesthetic into the brachial plexus.

Caudal Block/Caudal Anesthesia: Regional anesthesia produced by injection of a local anesthetic into the caudal or sacral canal.

Closed Circuit Anesthesia: Inhalation anesthesia maintained by the continuous rebreathing of a relatively small amount of the anesthetic gas and a basal amount of oxygen, normally used with an absorption apparatus for the removal of carbon dioxide.

Endobronchial Anesthesia: Anesthesia produced by introduction of a gaseous mixture through a slender tube placed in the large bronchus.

Endotracheal Anesthesia: Anesthesia produced by introduction of a gaseous mixture through a wide-bore tube inserted into the trachea through either the mouth or the nose.

Epidural Anesthesia: Regional anesthesia produced by injection of the anesthetic agent between the vertebral spines and beneath the ligamentum flavum into the epidural space.

General Anesthesia: A reversible state of unconsciousness and the inability to perceive pain, produced by
anesthetic agents, with absence of pain sensation over the entire body and a greater or lesser degree of muscular relaxation; the drugs producing this state can be administered by inhalation, intravenously, intramuscularly, rectally, or via the gastrointestinal tract.

Hypotensive Anesthesia: Anesthesia accompanied by the deliberate lowering of the blood pressure, a procedure said to reduce blood loss and improve usability of the surgical field.

Hypothermic Anesthesia: Anesthesia accompanied by the deliberate lowering of body temperature.
Inhalation Anesthesia: Anesthesia produced by the inhalation of vapors of a volatile liquid or gaseous anesthetic agent.

Insufflation Anesthesia: Anesthesia produced by blowing a mixture of gases or vapors through a tube introduced into the respiratory tract.