Renae Griffin

Colonoscopies are done using mild sedation to deep sedation. A general anesthetic is usually overkill. With mild sedation, the patient is awake, but relaxed. With deep sedation, the patient is asleep and unaware of their environment. The patient's awareness can be anywhere in between those two. So, depending on the type and amounts of anesthetic one gets, waking up during a colonoscopy could possibly be normal and common.

That depends on the drug and the amount of that drug which is used. This is kind of a tough question not knowing what anesthetic drug you are talking about. Generally, for a general anesthetic, the patient is given a pre-sedation amount to relax them while monitors are placed and oxygen is given. When we are ready to induce the patient, we typically give propofol, which will have you asleep in less than 60 seconds.

Well, it depends on how well your insulin works for you. Some diabetics are brittle and they have to have insulin and sometimes dextrose infused during surgery. The stress of surgery causes serum glucose to increase. Surgery can be done safely as long as your anesthesiologist knows that you took your insulin and they frequently check your glucose throughout the surgery. Small and/or short surgeries usually don't really affect the glucose. We usually tell people not to take their insulin because we'd rather treat a too high glucose rather than a too low one. Some anesthesiologists will have the patient take 1/2 their insulin dose and then closely monitor the glucose. So, to answer your question, as long as the anesthesia provider knows and is okay with you taking your insulin, then it's okay.

It depends on her current health, the surgery and the type of anesthesia. IV sedation/MAC would be the safest and is usually well tolerated by the elderly. Although with a little greater risk, most elderly patients tolerate regional anesthesia as well. General anesthesia stresses all of the body's organs and can be very risky for the elderly. I suggest your mother see her primary care physician who will evaluate her risks involved and optimize her health before the anesthetic.

The risk of a 3rd, 4th or 5th labor epidural is no more than the risk of your first one. Placing the epidural needle has no more risk than getting an IV except the needle is bigger. The soreness, if you have any, will stop in a couple of days. The medicine given is metabolized in a few days and no longer in your system.

Yes, giving a 3 year old anesthesia for a CT is very common and appropriate. A person has to be very still to get sharp CT images. It is very difficult to get a 3 year old to understand and comply with this.

In this situation, you weigh the risks of each procedure. It is more risky to have anesthesia during a cold because It can make your lungs more irritable and you are more likely to have a spasm of the blood vessels in your lungs or not be able to get oxygen into the blood in your lungs. As far as a D+C, if you have retained tissue or it is bleeding or is infected, you are at risk. It is up to your anesthesiologist and gynecologist to decide which is the least risky action.

Yes, he is at increased risk under anesthesia. Anesthesia decreases the respiratory drive, making the patient breathe slower and take more shallow breaths. This can cause less oxygen to get into the blood. Low oxygen can stress all of the body's organs, especially the heart. With COPD, your father already has a stressed respiratory system.

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Nausea and/or vomiting (N/V) after anesthesia is a common occurrence for many people. People who suffer from motion sickness almost always have some sort of nausea. Certain procedures, including obstetrics, GYN and eye surgery, stimulate the nausea centers and can make a patient more susceptible to N/V. The medications given, especially opioids and anesthesia gas itself, increase the likelihood of experiencing N/V. General anesthesia, with the anesthesia gases, is more likely to cause N/V than IV anesthesia.

There are medicines that can be given to assist in preventing N/V before, during and after the surgery. These usually work for those who have had only minor nausea in the past. Unfortunately, these medicines often only reduce the symptoms in those who have severe symptoms. Also if the anti-nausea medicines don't work for a given type of anesthesia, you will probably always have nausea for that type of anesthetic. The same is true that if you usually don't experience nausea with surgery, you are less likely to develope it in the future.

One thing I don't recommend is getting anti nausea medicine for your first anesthetic. All of these medicines have side affects and there is no need to add these drugs if you don't know if anesthesia causes you nausea.

Finally, everyone is different. Many people don't experience nausea at all. Some experience nausea less than an hour after anesthesia. And then there are those who have to be admitted to the hospital to help control their nausea. Based on my experience, among those who do experience nausea, suffer from it for 1 or 2 hours.

In my opinion, a procedure is a non-surgical process such as a colonoscopy, MRI, EGD or Cat Scan. Anesthesia for these types of "procedures" usually only require sedation or a MAC (monitored anesthesia care). A surgery is actually getting cut which can also sometimes only require a MAC or general anesthetic.