Anesthesia was developed to block or prevent pain during medical procedures. Anesthesia has been the backbone of the medical world for approximately 100 years. The first anesthetics were primitive and many patients simply did not trust them. Anesthesia remains a risky process, even in today's advanced medical world. Anesthesia is not used to treat or diagnose any specific disease; the sole objective is to help both the patient and the surgeon through the procedures. However, anesthesia is used in different ways depending on the extent of the procedure. There are three levels of anesthesia: local, regional and general anesthesia. An anesthesiologist determines what type of anesthesia will be needed. Local anesthesia is used for minor procedures and is the safest of the three types of anesthesia. [1] The main purpose of this anesthetic is to block pain in a small region of the body. An example of a procedure where a local anesthetic might be used is when a patient has a large cut in the skin and stitches are needed to heal the patient. Regional anesthetics are used to block a specific, larger region of the body. A patient would be induced under regional anesthesia during a cesarean section or if an operation was to be performed on a limb of the body. [2] General anesthesia is the most dangerous and powerful of the three.[4] When a patient undergoes an operation such as heart surgery, they lose consciousness for the duration of the operation under general anesthesia. There is no difference between local and regional anesthesia.[1] They only differ in the way they are injected. For local anesthesia, an injection of local anesthetic is injected around the surgical area. For example, if a...... middle of paper......neurotransmission. Injected anesthetics are thought to rapidly block the receptor site, which will also prevent neurotransmission.[5]Works Cited1) Gmyrek, Robyn. “Local and regional anesthesia”. Ed. Dirk M.Elston. MedScape.03 August 2011. Web. December 4, 2011.2) Fozzard, Harry A., Michael F. Sheets, and Dorothy A. Hanck. “The sodium channel as a target of local anesthetic drugs.” PubMed. November 1, 2011. The web. December 4, 2011.3) Ritchison, Gary. “Human Physiology – Neurons and Nervous System.” People – EasternKentucky University. Internet. December 4, 2011. .4) Desai, Arjun M. “General Anesthesia”. Ed. Meda Raghavendra. Medscape. August 3, 2011. Web. December 4, 2011.5) Hemmings, HM "Sodium channels and synaptic mechanisms of inhaled anesthetics." Oxford Journals. Oxford UP, June 9, 2009. Web. December 4. 2011.