Question: I’m a senior who’s having surgery and the one thing that
scares me more than anything else is the anesthesia. Can you tell me anything
to reduce my fear?
Answer: There probably are several sources for your fear. The
first is that you’re older and wonder if you’re at greater risk than someone
younger.
The second is that anesthesia can be dangerous to anyone. The
third is that you’ll lose total control when you’re under. I hope some of the
facts about anesthesia will help with all of your fears.
Anesthesia is risky, but today it is safer than ever for all age
groups.
Your age is not as important a risk factor as your medical
condition and the type of surgery you are having.
Safer drugs and major advances in the monitoring equipment doctors
use in surgery have reduced anesthesia complications. In the last decade alone,
deaths caused by anesthesia have dropped 25-fold, to 1 in 250,000.
In addition, shorter-acting drugs, more specific drugs and new
intravenous drugs can minimize the nausea and vomiting that sometimes occur
after anesthesia.
There are three main types of anesthesia: general, regional and
local.
General anesthesia makes a person unconscious so that the entire
body is pain-free. Regional anesthesia is used to block sensation in one area
of your body. Local anesthesia numbs a small part of your body.
General anesthesia is used for extensive surgeries. The drugs used
in general anesthesia are given intravenously or are inhaled. They act as
hypnotics, painkillers and muscle relaxants, and they block your memory of the
surgery.
Regional anesthesia is injected around a single nerve or a network
of nerves that branch out and serves an area. For example, spinal, epidural and
caudal anesthesia are injected into or near the spinal fluid, effectively
numbing nerves that serve the lower half of your body.
Local anesthesia may be used to numb only a small area of nerves
at the site where the surgeon plans to operate, such as for cataract surgery.
Local anesthesia is also used for minor procedures such as skin
biopsies and stitching a cut.
During local and regional anesthesia, patients often receive
intravenous drugs for sedation so that they can be comfortably drowsy during
surgery and remember little of their time in the operating room.
Before your surgery, you can also expect questions from your
doctors regarding your anesthesia. The following have to be considered: medical
problems you might have, medications you take, whether you smoke or drink
alcohol, any allergies you have, previous negative experience with anesthesia,
and adverse reactions to anesthesia by other family members.
The information collected by your doctors guides them in their
treatment. For example, smoking or alcohol consumption can influence the way an
anesthetic works in your body during surgery. Knowing whether you smoke or
drink alcohol allows your anesthesiologist to choose anesthetics that are
suited to you. And, some anesthetics include components of certain foods, such
as albumin from eggs. Discussing food and drug allergies beforehand helps your
anesthesiologist make important drug choices.
If you have a
question, please write to fred@healthygeezer.com.