spinal anesthesia
1
5.5
- noun
- /ˈspaɪnəl ænəsˈθiːziə/
- Specialized
:
anestesia espinal
- The doctor explained that spinal anesthesia involves injecting an anesthetic into the space around the spinal cord.
Examples
-
Diagnosis of a brain tumor after spinal anesthesia is rare.
Academic text (2007) -
The present case is of a sphenoid meningioma manifested after spinal anesthesia.
Academic text (2007) -
Low-dose chloroprocaine or lidocaine was used for short-acting spinal anesthesia.
Academic text (2018) -
During the operation, the surgeon administered spinal anesthesia to ensure the patient felt no pain in the lower half of the body.
-
Patients undergoing lower body surgery often receive spinal anesthesia to numb their legs and abdomen.
Synonyms
2
6.1
An injection into the space near the spine that makes the lower body lose feeling
1
4.6
A medicine injected into the spine to make the lower body numb during surgery
How Invasive
- Specialized
1
9.9
- Specialized
1
5.5
- Specialized
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is compositionally built from 'spinal' (relating to the spine/spinal cord) and 'anesthesia' (loss of sensation), so a learner who knows both words can infer it refers to anesthesia administered in the spinal region to numb part of the body. This modifier+noun medical compound follows standard compositional patterns and is cross-linguistically transparent, making it accessible to B1 learners.
Etymology
Spinal anesthesia comes from the simple image of putting medicine next to the spine so the lower body cannot feel pain. So anesthesia here means 'to make numb', and the term refers to an injection that makes the lower half of the body 'numb' for surgery.