Do not eat or drink ANYTHING (not even mints or gum) after midnight the night before your procedure (except medicines with sips of water), unless otherwise instructed by your surgeon. An empty stomach is very important during surgery.

It may be extremely important for you to continue some of your medicines, such as those for heart, blood pressure and breathing problems. These drugs should be taken with sips of water. Other medicines, such as insulin, blood thinners or aspirin-like drugs, may need to be stopped or the dose adjusted to prevent unwanted reactions. Make sure you ask your surgeon about these medicines, and bring a list of your current or recently taken drugs and their doses with you for your anesthesiologist to review.

You will have a chance to meet and talk with your anesthesiologist and nurse anesthetist the day of your surgery. A pre-anesthesia assessment will occur the day prior to your surgery if you are an inpatient, or the day of your admission if you are scheduled for outpatient surgery.

Please tell your surgeon well before the day of your surgery about any medical problems or concerns about anesthesia that you have. Your surgeon’s office will contact our anesthesiologists in advance of your procedure if necessary. You can also ask your primary care physician to contact us directly to share this information.

Your surgeon will give you those instructions, and the hospital will contact you as well. Usually your arrival time will be at least one hour before your surgery to allow for preparation.

Yes, as anesthesia will likely affect your judgement and coordination for hours following an outpatient or inpatient procedure. A responsible adult must be available to drive you home if you are to be discharged after your procedure. That person should also be available in case you must stay overnight.

In the pre-op area, you will have an intravenous line (IV) inserted. A local anesthetic is almost always administered before the IV needle is placed. In most cases, immediately before going into the operating room, we give a rapidly acting sedative through the IV. This sedative does not put you to sleep but helps you to relax.

Your anesthesiologist will discontinue the anesthetic, which returns you to consciousness. You will then be transported to the Post Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU) where you will recover from the anesthetic. In most cases, you will have been given pain medicines before you arrive in the PACU.

Each person is different; therefore every anesthetic is unique. This is the science and art of the practice of anesthesia. Our anesthesia team continually monitors and carefully makes any necessary adjustments throughout your procedure.

If an admission to a hospital has been planned, you will be transported to your room. If you are having outpatient surgery, you will be released once your condition meets discharge guidelines.

It’s possible that the medications you were given during anesthesia will affect your judgment and coordination. Therefore, you will be required to have a responsible adult escort you out of the surgical facility, drive you home and stay with you the night after your surgery. You must also avoid activities such as driving, drinking alcoholic beverages and making big decisions, for at least 24 hours after the operation.