How many stages of anesthesia are there?

The stages of anesthesia help the doctors to gauge and better predict the events that occur. This begins with anesthesia induction to emergence.

1. The first stage starts with the induction or administering of anesthesia and leads to the loss of consciousness of the patient.

2. The second stage is the REM stage which begins with uninhibited and sometimes responses that may be dangerous responses such as vomiting and uncontrolled movement. When patients experience problems at this phase, it is usually handled by administering a barbiturate like sodium pentothal usually before the anesthetic agent.

3. This is the surgical anesthesia, which is where the patient's pupillary gaze is fixed and the pupils are constricted. This is the targeted point of the surgical anesthesia. It is at this stage that the skeletal muscles relax and the patient's breathing becomes steady and the eye movements also stop.

4. This is the Overdose stage and is rare. It's indicated by hypotension, which is circulatory failure. If the patient is not stabilized quickly, this may result in death.