44 - Volatile Anesthetics

【揮発性麻酔剤、kihatsu-sei masui-zai】

[This six Kanji combo can be broken down into two three-Kanji words, "kihatsu-sei" is "volatilization (kihatsu)" + "nature (-sei)", and "masui-zai" is "anesthesia (masui)" + "agent/substance/dose (-zai)". In the most literal way, it could be translated as "anesthetic agent of a volatile nature". It's not that complicated, but those postpositions are interesting to learn.]

These are highly vaporous anesthetics, mainly ether, halothane, enflurane, isoflurane, sevoflurane, etc., some of which are used in medicine as inhalational anesthetics.

Inhalational anesthetics include gas anesthetics and volatile anesthetics, and when aspirated, they dissolve into the bloodstream through the lungs to produce an anesthetic effect on the brain and other tissues in the body. However, it takes a certain amount of time for the affected bloodstream to reach the brain tissue after inhalation, and depending on the anesthetic's concentration, it may have adverse effects on body tissues, so it must be handled with extreme caution.

The most famous volatile anesthetic is CHCL3, A.K.A chloroform.

In TV dramas, a person presses chloroform moistened in a handkerchief against the mouth and nose of an opponent to instantly knock him out, but it takes more than 10 minutes for chloroform to have an anesthetic effect, and its volatility is so high that it would evaporate in an instant after being soaked in a handkerchief or the like.

Inhalation of large quantities of volatile anesthetics has many side effects, such as liver damage and respiratory problems, and is now classified as a deleterious substance for nonmedical use.

In any case, it is impossible to put another person to sleep with volatile anesthetics, as such, this is a story that exists only in TV dramas.