General anaesthesia or general anesthesia (see spelling differences) is a medically induced state of unconsciousness with loss of protective reflexes, resulting from the administration of one or more general anaesthetic agents. It is carried out to allow medical procedures that would otherwise be intolerably painful for the patient; or where the nature of the procedure itself precludes the patient being awake. A variety of medications may be administered, with the overall aim of ensuring unconsciousness, amnesia, analgesia, loss of reflexes of the autonomic nervous system, and in some cases paralysis of skeletal muscles,. The optimal combination of drugs for any given patient and procedure is typically selected by an anaesthetist, or another provider such as a physician assistant or nurse anaesthetist (depending on local practice), in consultation with the patient and the surgeon, dentist or other practitioner performing the operative procedure.

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