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How To Anesthetize an Octopus
sciencehabit writes Researchers have figured out how to anesthetize octopuses so the animals do not feel pain while being transported and handled during scientific experiments. In a study published online this month in the Journal of Aquatic Animal Health, researchers report immersing 10 specimens of the common octopus in seawater with isoflurane, an anesthetic used in humans. They gradually increased the concentration of the substance from 0.5% to 2%. The investigators found that the animals lost the ability to respond to touch and their color paled, which means that their normal motor coordination of color regulation by the brain was lost, concluding that the animals were indeed anesthetized. The octopuses then recovered from the anesthesia within 40 to 60 minutes of being immersed in fresh seawater without the anesthetic, as they were able to respond to touch again and their color was back to normal.
I am an anesthesiologist who takes care of adults primarily. I did about 9 months of pediatric anesthesia in my 36 month residency after medical school. The pediatric anesthesiologist I trained under were spectacular and caring clinicians. I think you might be generalizing in your post. Until the late 1980s, doctors did not anesthetize boys routinely for *circumcision*. For other operations, infants and children were anesthetized similarly to adults. Studies came out around that time (late 1980s, IIRC) on the levels of circulating stress hormones like cortisol during circumcisions that proved the infants were responding physiologically exactly like older children and adults feeling pain. That was the end of the 'babies don't feel pain' hypothesis, which no one subscribes to any more. Remember that anesthesiologists are parents too. A lot has changed in medicine and anesthesia in 30 years. Undergoing anesthesia can be as scary as needing surgery in the first place, so I wanted to say anesthesiologists and nurse anesthetists study a long time (and are tested repeatedly!) to make sure we know how to get patients through surgery without feeling pain in the OR. If you or your child needs surgery, talk to the anesthesiologist or nurse anesthetist!