What Does General Anesthesia Mean?

Surgery is around the cor­ner. You’ve arranged for a ride to the hos­pi­tal, request­ed time off work, and treat­ed your­self to a new pair of com­fy paja­mas for recov­ery. And now that you’ve tak­en care of the logis­tics, you’re think­ing a lit­tle more about the surgery itself.

Your provider has told you that you will have gen­er­al anes­the­sia. You’ve heard of it before, but you’re not quite sure what it means and what to expect.

It’s nat­ur­al to feel uneasy about anes­the­sia, espe­cial­ly if you aren’t famil­iar with it. Here are answers to com­mon ques­tions about gen­er­al anesthesia.

What Does ​“Gen­er­al” Anes­the­sia Mean?

Anes­the­sia is the use of med­ica­tions dur­ing pro­ce­dures or surgery to stop you from feel­ing pain. When peo­ple hear the word ​“anes­the­sia,” they often think about get­ting med­ica­tion to help them fall asleep. This is gen­er­al anes­the­sia. It does more than make you sleep – it makes you uncon­scious and not sen­si­tive to pain. Gen­er­al anes­the­sia is usu­al­ly used for inva­sive surg­eries or pro­ce­dures, espe­cial­ly if they involve your head, chest, or abdomen (bel­ly).

How­ev­er, this isn’t the only type of anes­the­sia. Oth­er types are:

• Local anes­the­sia numbs only a small sec­tion of your body with­out affect­ing con­scious­ness. It’s com­mon­ly used for min­i­mal­ly inva­sive pro­ce­dures like skin biopsies.
• Region­al anes­the­sia numbs a larg­er part of your body (like a spe­cif­ic limb or from the waist down). Like local anes­the­sia, it doesn’t affect con­scious­ness. Region­al anes­the­sia is often used to ease pain dur­ing child­birth (epidur­al). It can also be used to help man­age chron­ic pain or con­trol pain after some ortho­pe­dic surgeries. 
• Seda­tion is often called ​“twi­light sleep.” It relax­es you so that you’re in a deep sleep and don’t feel pain, sim­i­lar to gen­er­al anes­the­sia. How­ev­er, you aren’t com­plete­ly uncon­scious – your provider can still wake you if they need to com­mu­ni­cate with you. Seda­tion is often used for pro­ce­dures like colono­scopies or wis­dom teeth removal.

Is Anes­the­sia Safe?

In most cas­es, gen­er­al anes­the­sia is safe. An anes­the­si­ol­o­gist or Cer­ti­fied Reg­is­tered Nurse Anes­thetist (CRNA), who is a spe­cial­ist in anes­the­si­ol­o­gy, will mon­i­tor you dur­ing the whole pro­ce­dure to keep an eye on your vital signs and watch for any prob­lems. You will also be mon­i­tored after the pro­ce­dure to make sure you don’t have com­pli­ca­tions as you wake up.

It’s pos­si­ble to have seri­ous com­pli­ca­tions like a col­lapsed lung, a severe aller­gic reac­tion, or malig­nant hyper­ther­mia (fever and mus­cle con­trac­tions while under anes­the­sia). How­ev­er, com­pli­ca­tions are rare and are more com­mon in peo­ple with risk fac­tors like cer­tain dis­eases or a fam­i­ly his­to­ry of anes­the­sia allergies.

If you have any ques­tions or con­cerns about anes­the­sia, be sure to dis­cuss them with your sur­geon in your pre-oper­a­tive appoint­ment. Your sur­gi­cal team under­stands that hav­ing surgery can feel over­whelm­ing, and they’re com­mit­ted to ensur­ing you feel com­plete­ly com­fort­able and con­fi­dent before your pro­ce­dure. Your sur­geon can pro­vide you with com­pre­hen­sive resources and detailed infor­ma­tion to address any con­cerns you may have. Remem­ber, your health­care team is here to sup­port you every step of the way – no ques­tion is too small, and they want to make sure you feel ful­ly pre­pared and at ease before mov­ing forward.

Will I Wake Up Dur­ing Surgery?

Prob­a­bly not. There are rare occa­sions when some­one has brief, fleet­ing moments of con­scious­ness. This is called anes­the­sia aware­ness. It doesn’t nec­es­sar­i­ly mean that some­one has com­plete­ly wok­en up – they might be in a dream­like state or hear sounds going on around them.

It’s not always 100% clear what caus­es anes­the­sia aware­ness, but you do have an increased risk if you smoke, have breath­ing prob­lems from lung dis­ease or res­pi­ra­to­ry con­di­tions, have mul­ti­ple med­ical con­di­tions, or have a his­to­ry of sub­stance use disorder.

For­tu­nate­ly, most peo­ple who expe­ri­ence anes­the­sia aware­ness can safe­ly receive anes­the­sia in the future and are not at a high risk of it hap­pen­ing again. Just be sure to tell your provider ahead of time if you’ve had anes­the­sia aware­ness in the past.

What Hap­pens When You Wake Up After Gen­er­al Anesthesia?

You might be a lit­tle grog­gy and out of it when you first wake up, or dip in and out of sleep. As you con­tin­ue to wake up, you may have some side effects like nau­sea and vom­it­ing, sore throat from the breath­ing tube, mus­cle pain, or headache. These are usu­al­ly mild and go away with­in 24 hours or less.

Don’t pan­ic if you have slight­ly low blood pres­sure or changes in your heart rate. These are nor­mal after surgery and can eas­i­ly be treat­ed with med­ica­tion and fluids.

How Do I Pre­pare for Anesthesia?

Your provider will give you detailed instruc­tions on what to do before get­ting anes­the­sia. They will like­ly tell you to fast beforehand.

Hav­ing food and drinks in your sys­tem can put you at risk for aspi­ra­tion (undi­gest­ed food makes its way into your esoph­a­gus and air­way). It also takes up room in your stom­ach and bow­els, which reduces the amount of space the sur­gi­cal team has to work if you’re get­ting abdom­i­nal surgery.

Water is some­times an excep­tion to the rule. You may be able to drink it for up to two hours before the surgery.

Instruc­tions might vary a bit depend­ing on the type of pro­ce­dure and your health, but there are a few basic rules of thumb when it comes to prep­ping for gen­er­al anesthesia.

• Avoid alco­hol, tobac­co, and recre­ation­al drugs for sev­er­al days before the procedure.
• Stop erec­tile dys­func­tion med­ica­tions for at least 24 hours beforehand.
• Tell your provider about all pre­scrip­tion and over-the-counter med­ica­tions, sup­ple­ments, and vit­a­mins you take. They may have you stop tak­ing some­thing or adjust a dose. Do not stop or alter your med­ica­tion with­out talk­ing to your provider first. 
• Ask your provider if you can drink water before surgery.

Also read: What Is Robot­ic Surgery for Joint Replacement?

Is Gen­er­al Anes­the­sia Used Dur­ing Labor?

It’s extreme­ly rare for gen­er­al anes­the­sia to be giv­en dur­ing labor. Con­scious­ly par­tic­i­pat­ing dur­ing labor is con­sid­ered impor­tant for safe­ty and effi­cien­cy, but gen­er­al anes­the­sia makes you lose consciousness.

Even C‑sections, which are sur­gi­cal pro­ce­dures, don’t always require gen­er­al anes­the­sia. It’s typ­i­cal­ly only giv­en dur­ing an emer­gency C‑section or when bleed­ing occurs.

It doesn’t mat­ter if it’s your first time get­ting surgery or if you may as well call the oper­at­ing room your sec­ond home. Any­time you get anes­the­sia, it’s nor­mal to wor­ry or be anx­ious. Let your provider know if you have any ques­tions or con­cerns so you can be as com­fort­able as pos­si­ble while get­ting ready for surgery.