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Anesthesia – Preparation

February 28, 2021
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“The anesthesiologist will speak either the day of surgery or at a prior pre-admission anesthesia appointment with you in regards to your upcoming surgery and anesthetic. During these appointments, your anesthesiologist will ask you a variety of questions pertaining to your medical history, including questions about heart problems, elevated blood pressure, history of strokes and seizures, breathing problems like asthma or COPD, diabetes, anemia, coagulation problems, thyroid conditions, kidney and liver problems and neurological problems like anxiety or depression. The anesthesiologist will also discuss your surgical history, including recent hospitalizations, anesthesia history, allergies, smoking history, alcohol intake, recreational drug use, height and weight, medications prescribed over the counter, conditions of your teeth, NPO status and review applicable test results, including blood work, electrocardiogram, echocardiogram, chest x-rays and lung function studies. The anesthesiologist might also ask you questions about your exercise tolerance, shortness of breath when climbing stairs, and will listen to your heart and lungs, look into your mouth and ask you to move your neck left and right. All these questions have to purpose of evaluating you to undergo anesthesia and surgery safely.

During these interviews, you get the chance to share any other information that you might think is important. Keep in mind we’d rather have you share too much than too little. As something you might think is not worth mentioning is actually very important for your anesthesiologist to know. Not sharing your medical history and answering all questions honestly might lead to complications and or side effects that could otherwise be avoided. These side effects can range from very mild to life threatening complications. For example, not sharing that you actually ate or drank for longer than you were allowed to can cause aspiration pneumonia, which can be in very severe cases, deadly. But will at least extend your hospital stay. Not sharing the use of over the counter medications or herbals can lead to a significant interoperative bleeding. Not sharing information about recreational drug use. For example, cocaine use could cause death due to interaction of cocaine with anesthesia medications and medication metabolism. These are just a few examples that highlight why it is so important to share all information with your anesthesiologist or your anesthesia care team.”

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