Anesthesiology

You receive medicine that puts you into a deep sleep. Your care team closely monitors your blood pressure, breathing, heart rate and other vital signs during your procedure.

If needed, a breathing tube may be placed into your lungs.

General anesthesia may cause these side effects:

• Hoarseness
• Mild muscle aches
• Nausea or vomiting
• Sore throat

For most people, side effects are mild and last one to two days.

Your anesthesiologist gives you medicine that sedates you. You feel sleepy. You will likely not remember much from your procedure. MAC makes less of an impact on your heart, blood pressure and breathing. In some cases, the care team places a soft device in the nose or mouth to help you breathe.

Most patients recover more quickly from MAC, with fewer anesthesia side effects.

MAC may cause these common side effects:

• Mild discomfort in the nose or throat, from breathing device
• Nausea
• Ongoing sleepiness
• Sense of fatigue

Any side effects are mild and last one to two days.

Your doctor injects numbing medicine around the nerves close to the area of surgery. This turns off the nerves for up to 24 hours.

You feel no pain in the area. You also cannot move the area normally. This is because the nerves that control the muscles are also numb.

Your recovery nurse gives you information about how to care for yourself as the regional anesthesia wears off.

Tips to follow:

• Take your pain medicine before the numbness wears off.
• Be careful with the numb area of your body. The loss of feeling means you will not be able to tell if you are hurting yourself.
• Stay away from any hot items or surfaces.
• If your arm is numb, keep it in a sling until the numbness wears off.
• If your leg is numb, wear a brace and do not walk unassisted until the numbness wears off.

You get numbing medicine injected near your spine. This numbs the lower half of your body before surgery or during labor and delivery.

Side effects are rare, but can include:

• Bruising at the injection site lasting one to two days.
• A spinal headache with pain at the front or back of the head, or the neck. This occurs in 1% of patients. The pain goes away when you lie down.

If you think you have a spinal headache, tell your doctor right away.

Complications from spinal anesthesia are rare but can be serious:

• Bleeding near the spine
• Damage to nerves
• Infection near the spine
• Paralysis

Watch out for these signs of complications:

• Inability to control urine or bowels
• Severe low back pain
• Weakness or numbness in the legs

If you experience any of these symptoms, call 911 immediately.