Numerous precautions surround both anesthetic and alcohol, particularly when the substances are combined together. Generally speaking, anesthetic should almost never directly interact with alcohol. Exceptions do exist for certain anesthetic procedures and certain types of alcohol. Anesthetic use can become an especially daunting task when chronic alcoholism is involved. Long-term alcohol abuse can produce lingering effects in the body that may make anesthetic administration challenging and perhaps dangerous.
Physicians recommend that any patients not mix anesthetic and alcohol before or following a surgery or other procedure requiring an anesthetic. Specifically, recommendations usually advise that alcohol consumption not take place for at least 48 hours before and at least 24 hours after an anesthetic has been administered. Like most drug interactions, the intermingling of anesthetic chemicals with alcohol chemicals can produce adverse effects in some individuals.
Since several different types of anesthetic exist, specific reactions can be diverse. A potential general risk, however, is the enhancing properties that both the anesthetic and the alcohol can have on each other. Using anesthetic before or after alcohol intake can amplify the common symptoms individuals experience when they are inebriated, such as impaired cognitive functioning. Likewise, alcohol can increase an anesthetic's influence on the body, making effects like numbing last longer.
Even the indirect interaction of anesthetic and alcohol can prove troubling. Excessive alcohol consumption induces many effects in the body that ultimately make the body less receptive to anesthetics. For one, the portions of the brain that anesthetics act upon to reduce stress and physical responses to stress are damaged or depressed in many alcoholics. Other physical ailments are often present, which the anesthetic cannot fix or may even exacerbate: heart muscle damage, liver disease, and diminished blood sugar levels. In addition, physiological responses to alcohol withdrawal such as hypertension and trembling may put added stress on the nervous system, thereby necessitating increased anesthetic levels beyond what the patient can safely handle.
Despite the general negative viewpoints on combining the two substances, anesthetic and alcohol can become beneficial partners in some instances. Alcohol can act as a numbing agent on occasion. In fact, the use of alcohol as an anesthetic was commonplace in some regions before medical anesthetics came into prominence. Certain simple alcohols like mannitol can also prove useful in dental medicine. Some studies show that mixing a traditional anesthetic with mannitol can significantly reduce patient pain in dental procedures because the mannitol allows the anesthetic better access to irritated nerve fibers.