FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

It comes in the following forms:

• General anaesthesia : Makes you unconscious so you can’t feel pain. You can get this type of medicine as a gas or vapor that you breathe in through a mask or tube. Or you can get it through a needle into a vein.
• Regional anaesthesia : Numbs the general area of your body where the surgery will be done. The doctor will inject medicine into a clump of nerves. One well-known type is an epidural. You get it in your spinal cord to numb your lower body. Sometimes you can get both regional anaesthesia and a sedative through an IV. This is called “twilight sleep.” You aren’t fully asleep, but you’re not fully awake, either.
• Local anaesthesia : The doctor numbs a much smaller area of your body where the procedure will be done. He can inject the medicine or rub it onto your skin. It’s used for minor procedures like removing a mole.
• Monitored Anaesthesia Care (MAC), also known as conscious sedation or twilight sleep, is a type of sedation that is administered through an IV to make a patient sleepy and calm during a procedure. The patient is typically awake, but groggy, and are able to follow instructions as needed.

This type of sedation is used for outpatient procedures, such as a colonoscopy, where the patient is expected to go home after the anaesthesia has completely worn off.

You’ll meet with your anaesthesiologist/Anaethetist before the procedure. She’ll ask about your medical history and what medicines you take. You might need to stop taking some drugs, like blood thinners or aspirin, a week or more before your surgery. Tell your doctor if you are taking insulin or oral hypoglycemics.

If you’re getting general anaesthesia, the doctor will probably ask you to stop 6 to 8 hours before the procedure. That’s so food doesn’t back up from your stomach into your lungs while you’re anaesthetised. If you take medicine every day, ask your doctor if you can take it with a small sip of water on the day of surgery.

An anaesthesiologist or nurse anesthetist will be with you during your surgery. They will give you medicine to keep you asleep for the whole procedure. They will also keep track of your vital signs like heart rate, body temperature, breathing, and blood pressure.

It depends on how long your surgery lasts. Once it’s done, you’ll stop getting the anaesthesia. You’ll wake up in a recovery room.

General anaesthesia isn’t like being asleep. You won’t have dreams that you can remember. You shouldn’t remember anything — including the procedure.

After your surgery, you’ll go to a recovery room to wake up. Nurses will monitor your heart rate, breathing, and other vital signs for about 30 minutes.

As you come out of the anaesthesia, you might feel groggy and confused. The drugs’ effects can take a few hours to fully wear off.

Maybe, but most are minor and temporary. It depends on which type of aneasthesia you get.

Side effects from general anesthesia include:

• Nausea and vomiting
• Dry mouth
• Sore throat
• Hoarseness
• Confusion
• Chills
• Sleepiness
• Muscle aches

Side effects from regional anaesthesia include:

• Headache
• Mild back pain
• Trouble peeing
• Bleeding under the skin where the medicine was injected
• Nerve damage (this is rare)

That depends on the type of surgery you had. Some procedures require an overnight hospital stay or longer. If you had a same-day surgery, you should be able to go home 1 to 4 hours afterward.

Yes, you will need to arrange ahead of time for someone to drive you home. You won’t be able to hit the road for 24 hours after the anaesthesia.

If you go home on the same day as your procedure, you’ll probably notice some mild side effects until the anaesthesia fully wears off:

• Sore throat
• Nausea
• Muscle aches
• Dizziness
• Headache

You might also have side effects from the surgery itself. Try to take it easy for at least a day after your procedure.