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Anesthesia - Health Tips
Pam Upadya, MD, DABA, Associate Program Director, Department of Anesthesia, discusses the importance of and the various types of anesthetic plans.
Anesthesia is the practice of medicine that is dedicated to relieving pain and the total care of a surgical patient before, during and after surgery.
Before surgery your anesthesiologist will talk to you about medical problems and previous surgeries, they will also address any concerns you may have with your upcoming surgery. After careful evaluation and discussion your anesthesiologist will create an individualized anesthetic plan that will take into account your surgery, your current state of health and your desires, all the while keeping your safety at the utmost of importance.
Anesthetic plans can vary over a spectrum of conscious states, you might only need a little medicine to calm your nerves known as sedation or a twilight sleep. For more involved surgeries you may have general anesthesia, where you may be asleep completely for the whole entire surgery. Then there is the option of regional anesthesia, which encompasses a variety of techniques to numb part of the body and relieve pain from the surgery as well as potentially into the first day after surgery. Common terms for regional anesthesia can be a nerve block or an epidural.
After you and your doctor have decided on an anesthetic plan and you are in the operating room you will be monitored continuously throughout your procedure to ensure your safety and vital functions which may include watching your heart rate and rhythm, your blood pressure, and how much oxygen you have in your body. After your surgery is done, your anesthesiologist will check on you in the post operative period to make sure you are comfortable and pain free, if not done before or during your surgery a regional block can be done at this time also.
If you have any concerns about receiving anesthesia I urge you to talk to your anesthesiologist before your procedure, together as a team we can get you through this time.
