What is the Difference Between Anesthesia and Paresthesia

The key difference between anesthesia and paresthesia is that anesthesia is a method of controlled, temporary loss of sensation used to eliminate pain, while paresthesia is a medical condition that causes sensations of burning, prickling, itching, or tingling of the skin due to no obvious reason.

Anesthesia and paresthesia are two terms that are associated with nerves. Anesthesia is a method used in medicine and veterinary science to treat different conditions. On the other hand, paresthesia is a medical condition that causes sensations of pins and needles. However, anesthesia can be used as a treatment regime for paresthesia. Therefore, they are two correlated terms.

1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is Anesthesia
3. What is Paresthesia
4. Similarities – Anesthesia and Paresthesia
5. Anesthesia vs Paresthesia in Tabular Form
6. Summary – Anesthesia vs Paresthesia

What is Anesthesia?

Anesthesia is a method of controlled, temporary loss of sensation that is used to eliminate pain. It is used for medical or veterinary purposes. Anesthesia can cause analgesia or relief from pain, muscle relaxation, a loss of memory, and unconsciousness. Normally, an individual under the effects of drugs that cause anesthesia is referred to as being anesthetized. Usage of anesthesia enables the performing of painless operation procedures; without anesthesia, they would cause intolerable pain. Therefore, anesthesia helps operations to be technically feasible.

There are three categories of anesthesia: general anesthesia, sedation, and regional and local anesthesia. General anesthesia suppresses the activity of the central nervous system, which results in unconsciousness. Sedation suppresses the central nervous system, which inhibits both anxiety and the creation of long-term memories without resulting in unconsciousness. Moreover, regional and local anesthesia blocks the transmission of nerve impulses in a specific region of the body. Regional and local anesthesia can be either used on its own or together with general anesthesia and sedation. However, there are complications that can result from using anesthesia. Minor complications include postoperative nausea and vomiting, hospital readmission, local anesthetic toxicity, airway trauma, or malignant hyperthermia. The more serious complications include death, heart attack, and pulmonary embolism.

What is Paresthesia?

Paresthesia is a medical condition that causes a sensation of burning, prickling, itching, or tingling of the skin due to no obvious reason. However, it is believed to be caused by pressure on a nerve or nerve damage. Nerve damage due to injury, stroke, radiculopathy, neuropathy, a pinched nerve, and sciatica results in chronic paresthesia. Moreover, symptoms of paresthesia include numbness, weakness, tingling, burning, or cold sensations in certain areas of the body. The complications that result from this condition may include permanent numbness and paralysis.

Paresthesia is diagnosed through physical examination, X-ray, blood test, and MRI scan. Furthermore, treatment options for paresthesia include lifestyle adjustment, physical therapy, and managing other underlying diseases that ease the symptoms.

What are the Similarities Between Anesthesia and Paresthesia?

Anesthesia and paresthesia are two terms that are associated with nerves.
Both are two correlated terms.
Skin is the organ that is affected by both.
Anesthesia can be used as a treatment regime for paresthesia.
Both these can cause complications.

What is the Difference Between Anesthesia and Paresthesia?

Anesthesia is a method of controlled, temporary loss of sensation that is used to eliminate pain, while paresthesia is a medical condition that causes sensations of burning, prickling, itching, or tingling of the skin due to no obvious reason. Thus, this is the key difference between anesthesia and paresthesia. Furthermore, anesthesia results in numbness, while paresthesia results in a pins and needles sensation.

The below infographic presents the differences between anesthesia and paresthesia in tabular form for side-by-side comparison.

Summary – Anesthesia vs Paresthesia

Anesthesia and paresthesia are two correlated terms that are associated with nerves. However, anesthesia is a method of controlled, temporary loss of sensation that is used to eliminate pain, while paresthesia is a medical condition that causes sensations of burning, prickling, itching, or tingling of the skin due to no obvious reason. So, this summarizes the difference between anesthesia and paresthesia.

Reference:

1. “Anesthesia: Anesthesiology, Surgery, Side Effects, Types, Risk.” Cleveland Clinic.
2. Pietrangelo, Ann. “Parethesia: Causes, Treatment, and More.” Healthline, Healthline Media, 17 Mar. 2017.

Image Courtesy:

1. “Preoxygenation before anesthetic induction” By ISAF Headquarters Public Affairs Office – originally posted to Flickr as 100410-F-7713A-002 (CC BY 2.0) via Commons Wikimedia
2. “Signs and symptoms of hypothyroidism” By Häggström, Mikael (2014). “Medical gallery of Mikael Häggström 2014”. WikiJournal of Medicine 1 (2). DOI:10.15347/wjm/2014.008. ISSN 2002-4436 – Own work (CC0) via Commons Wikimedia