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Anesthesia - what to ask your doctor - adult

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What to ask your doctor about anesthesia - adult

You are scheduled to have a surgery or procedure. You will need to talk with your surgeon about the type of anesthesia that will be best for you. Below are some questions you may want to ask your surgeon.

Questions

Which type of anesthesia is best for me based on the procedure that I am having?

  • General anesthesia
  • Spinal or epidural anesthesia
  • Regional anesthesia
  • Conscious sedation

When do I need to stop eating or drinking before having the anesthesia?

Is it alright to come alone to the hospital, or should someone come with me? Can I drive myself home?

If I am taking the following medicines, what should I do?

  • Aspirin, ibuprofen (Motrin, Advil), naproxen (Aleve), other arthritis medicines, vitamin E, clopidogrel (Plavix), warfarin (Coumadin), and any other blood thinners
  • Sildenafil (Viagra), vardenafil (Levitra), or tadalafil (Cialis)
  • Vitamins, minerals, herbs, or other supplements
  • Medicines for heart problems, lung problems, diabetes, or allergies
  • Other medicines I am supposed to take everyday

If I have asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, or any other medical problems, do I need to do anything special before I have anesthesia?

If I am nervous, can I get medicine to relax my nerves before going into the operating room?

After I receive the anesthesia:

  • Will I be awake or aware of what is happening?
  • Will I feel any pain?
  • Will someone be watching and making sure I am ok?

After the anesthesia wears off:

  • How soon will I wake up? How soon before I can get up and move around?
  • How long will I need to stay?
  • Will I have any pain?
  • Will I be sick to my stomach?

If I have spinal or epidural anesthesia, will I have a headache afterward?

What if I have more questions after the surgery? Who can I talk to?

Review Date: 9/30/2024

Reviewed By

Linda J. Vorvick, MD, Clinical Professor, Department of Family Medicine, UW Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA. Also reviewed by David C. Dugdale, MD, Medical Director, Brenda Conaway, Editorial Director, and the A.D.A.M. Editorial team.

References

Hernandez A, Sherwood ER. Anesthesiology principles, pain management, and conscious sedation. In: Townsend CM Jr, Beauchamp RD, Evers BM, Mattox KL, eds. Sabiston Textbook of Surgery. 21st ed. St Louis, MO: Elsevier; 2022:chap 14.

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© 1997- A.D.A.M., a business unit of Ebix, Inc. Any duplication or distribution of the information contained herein is strictly prohibited.

All content on this site including text, images, graphics, audio, video, data, metadata, and compilations is protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. You may view the content for personal, noncommercial use. Any other use requires prior written consent from Ebix. You may not copy, reproduce, distribute, transmit, display, publish, reverse-engineer, adapt, modify, store beyond ordinary browser caching, index, mine, scrape, or create derivative works from this content. You may not use automated tools to access or extract content, including to create embeddings, vectors, datasets, or indexes for retrieval systems. Use of any content for training, fine-tuning, calibrating, testing, evaluating, or improving AI systems of any kind is prohibited without express written consent. This includes large language models, machine learning models, neural networks, generative systems, retrieval-augmented systems, and any software that ingests content to produce outputs. Any unauthorized use of the content including AI-related use is a violation of our rights and may result in legal action, damages, and statutory penalties to the fullest extent permitted by law. Ebix reserves the right to enforce its rights through legal, technological, and contractual measures.
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