What does general anesthesia mean?

Fully unconscious: General anesthesia means you will be completely asleep, unable to respond to commands, unable to feel, hear or remember, and usually will have some kind of breathing device placed in your airway (throat). An anesthesiologist will monitor you closely and give you medications to keep you "asleep" and comfortable, keep you alive while operating on you, and most importantly wake you up!

Unresponsive: General anesthesia is a state of being unresponsive to stimulation. It includes not being aware of your environment, not remembering, not hurting and not moving. It implies being unconscious but with support of a patient's vital signs (and usually breathing). General anesthesia also implies the provision of good operating conditions to the surgeon.

Absence of pain: General anesthesia is the complete absence of pain during a procedure. Essentially we put the brain and body to sleep so that a surgeon can perform an operation with no pain. During this state the anesthesiologist monitors all your vital signs and makes sure you are all right. At the end of the operation we bring you back to a wakeful, and hopefully, comfortable state.