Anesthesiologists use the term 'sleep' so as not to scare patients with the word 'coma' (Emery N. Brown, MD, PhD, Harvard). In reality, however, general anesthesia is a type of coma.NEJM - General Anesthesia, Sleep, And Coma
General anesthesia, the scientists say, is functionally equivalent to brainstem death, and perhaps explains why some patients do not fully recover consciousness for several hours after general anesthesia, as well as why postoperative cognitive dysfunction could persist in elderly patients for several months afterward.
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