Frequently asked questions about anesthesia

How are patients put to sleep?

When patients come to the operating room, they are greeted by the anesthesiologist and taken from the stretcher to the operating table by the operating team with the help of the anesthesiologist. After that, the anesthesiologist connects the sphygmomanometer, the electrodes of the heart monitor and the fingertip cable of the pulse oximeter (measures oxygen in the blood) device to the patient. These enable the patient’s vital functions to be closely monitored throughout the surgery. If necessary, oxygen can be given by mask for 3-5 minutes before the start of anesthesia. After that, he administers drugs that will reduce painful stimuli, create a special sleep state called anesthesia, and provide muscle relaxation, respectively, intravenously to the patient. Then, anesthetic gases mixed with oxygen are given to the patient through a tube placed in the patient’s trachea by the anesthetist. As long as these gases are given, anesthesia continues, shortly after it is stopped, anesthesia ends and the patient wakes up. During this process, the anesthesiologist is constantly at the patient’s head and makes the necessary treatments regarding the course of the surgery.

Does the anesthetist leave you after “putting you to sleep”?

Patients who are given anesthesia are never left alone in the operating room. Some of the patients may think that after the anesthesiologist “sleeps”, they have no other job and leave the operating room. However, there may be unexpected changes in vital functions even in patients who are found to be quite healthy in the preoperative examination. For this reason, your anesthesiologist is always with you and your only protector.

Are sleep and anesthesia the same thing?

General anesthesia is called “sleeping” in daily conversations. When general anesthesia is applied, consciousness disappears and the patient sleeps. But this is not a normal sleep. Consciousness has been lost and the functioning of many organs of the body has also changed. In this case, the anesthetist checks the functioning of the body’s changing organs and makes the necessary treatments for them. “Narcosis” is an older term; Indicates a “deep sleep” state. Although it is sometimes used instead of the word anesthesia, it describes anesthesia incompletely, so it is not liked by anesthesiologists.

Is there such a thing as waking up in the middle of surgery?

This situation was sometimes encountered when modern anesthesia techniques were not yet widely used. Thanks to today’s techniques and easy-to-control drugs, this is a very rare condition. Your anesthesiologist, who will always be with you during the operation, will not allow such a situation by determining your sleep depth with modern monitoring methods.

What is the maximum duration of anesthesia?

Anesthesia can take a few minutes or hours. This depends on the type and course of the surgery, the longer the surgery should last, the longer the anesthesia is continued uninterrupted.

Which patients cannot receive anesthesia?

Thanks to today’s developed anesthetic drugs, anesthesia techniques, devices to monitor the vital functions of patients, and postoperative intensive care units, it is now possible for patients who could not be given anesthesia before, to have all kinds of surgery safely. Patients with heart disease, long-standing kidney disease and severe lung disease also have a chance to undergo surgery and recover. Moreover, these patients can easily undergo surgeries for these existing diseases.

Anesthesiologist who examines a patient with this type of disease, determines the degree of the disease with the examinations he will make, makes an effort to reduce the symptoms of the disease with the treatment to be given before the operation, and seeks opinions from the relevant departments if necessary. The aim of all this effort is to choose the appropriate anesthesia drug and technique that will pose the least danger to you. As a result of all these studies, every patient can safely receive anesthesia under appropriate conditions.

Who monitors your vital signs during the operation and how?

As mentioned before, monitoring vital signs during surgery is the most basic duty of the anesthesiologist. Thanks to the appropriate connections attached to the patient before the operation, the patient’s heartbeat, oxygen concentration reaching the tissues and blood pressure are continuously monitored. Thanks to advanced anesthesia devices, body temperature, carbon dioxide, anesthetic gases and oxygen amount and even the depth of anesthesia are continuously measured and recorded with the connections placed after the anesthesia is given.

Does the patient watch the surgery when regional or local anesthesia is applied?

Absolutely not, when regional anesthesia is applied, some sedatives can be given intravenously to induce a sleep-like state in patients. The patient, who is relieved in this way, is not affected by the activities and conversations in the operating room and spends the uncomfortable parts of the surgery in light sleep. Some patients may not want to sleep when the effects of regional anesthesia are well established and they realize that they do not feel pain. Patients can spend time talking to their anesthetists during the surgery if they wish. Since a shield is placed in all surgeries, it is impossible for the patient to see the operating area anyway.

Why should you go hungry for surgery?

Patients who will be given anesthesia should have an empty stomach. While the patient is under anesthesia, the foods in the full stomach and acidic gastric fluid may come back from the esophagus and escape into the trachea. This is undesirable and can be life-threatening.

Adult patients should not take solid food starting from 24.00 in the night before the surgery. After the surgery, they can take two slices of bread or 4 biscuits and the desired liquid at 06.00 in the morning. They can take clear liquids (water, sugar water, tea, linden, clear fruit juices) up to 2 hours before the operation (except milk, carbonated drinks, soup). Medicines can be taken with a sip of water up to 1 hour before the surgery.

It is inconvenient for some mothers to feed or breastfeed their babies before the surgery without the permission of their doctor, considering that eating a small amount of food will not harm the children and will not feed them.

The following table should be followed for children:

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Why do they apply serum before surgery?

Before the operation, serum is applied to the patient with the help of a plastic cannula placed in the vein. These intravenous drugs allow the patient to lose consciousness in a short time and to initiate anesthesia. Before and during the operation, the patient’s fluid and electrolyte needs are met through this vein. Again, through this vascular access, drugs that will help control and treat changes in vital signs during surgery are injected. In short, the vascular access opened before the surgery is one of the most important tools that connect the patient to life. After the surgery, painkillers, drugs to prevent vomiting and nausea, and liquid are given until the patient is able to take food by mouth. This plastic cannula in the vein is removed and canceled when the need ends.

Can there be an allergy to anesthesia?

All drugs, not just anesthetics, can cause allergies. However, allergy to anesthetic drugs is rare, except for a few. Allergic reactions may be in the form of redness in the area where the drug is given, sometimes along the vein, rash in the form of urticaria in some patients, and very rarely, sudden drop in blood pressure, difficulty in breathing and palpitation. Allergy tests performed before anesthesia have no scientific value. Your anesthesiologist is trained and experienced in dealing with all kinds of allergic reactions, and operating room conditions are the most suitable environment for the treatment of such conditions.

Can teeth be damaged during anesthesia?

It is a great benefit to tell the anesthesiologist before the operation that you have a denture, one or more teeth holding your prosthesis, or any teeth that are loose. Generally, removable dentures are removed before coming to the operating room. While the anesthetist inserts a tube into your windpipe, she tries to avoid damaging the single tooth that holds the partial denture. However, it is beneficial to extract non-functional and loose teeth before surgery. Because these can be dislodged during anesthesia no matter how careful you are. Under normal conditions, healthy teeth are not damaged.

What is the risk for smokers?

The anesthesiologist does not like that the patient is a smoker. Smokers experience some problems during anesthesia and especially during the awakening period after anesthesia and cause their anesthetists to experience it, but they continue to smoke in their post-operative lives as they do not remember these experiences.

If you are a smoker, it is best to give up smoking as soon as possible, because it takes a long time to heal the damage done by smoking for years. Quitting smoking a few days before the surgery is of no use to you or your anesthetist. The worst thing you will do to yourself and your anesthesiologist is to come to the operating room by smoking a few hours before the operation.

What causes sore throat after surgery?

At the end of the surgery, anesthetic gases are turned off and the patient is expected to wake up gradually. After the patient’s vital reflexes return, the tube in the airways is withdrawn and the patient is allowed to breathe on his own. This tube, which is of great benefit during surgery, may cause some irritation in the trachea in some patients. The pain, tickling and difficulty in swallowing that the patient feels in his throat after the surgery are the reasons for this and are temporary. Soft tubes made of special materials that have been developed in recent years have reduced this to a minimum.

What causes post-operative nausea-vomiting?

In some surgeries, surgical stimuli may cause postoperative nausea and vomiting. Vomiting and nausea occur more frequently after strabismus surgeries in children and after abdominal surgeries in adults compared to other surgeries. These effects of anesthesia drugs that have been developed in recent years have been greatly reduced, and even some anesthesia drugs have anti-nausea-vomiting effects. There are many drugs that prevent nausea-vomiting, this problem can be prevented by giving these drugs intravenously before waking up from anesthesia.

Is it destiny to have pain after surgery?

Today, extreme pain after surgery is no longer destiny. It has now been proven that post-operative pain has many harmful effects. Pain is tried to be alleviated by applying painkillers in the “recovery section”, where the patients are kept for a while to get rid of the effects of the anesthetic drugs and regain their vital functions. When the patient’s consciousness is fully opened, “Patient Controlled Analgesia” is applied. This application is made with the help of a device. While the device continuously delivers a low dose of painkiller to the patient, it allows the patient to press a button and administer an additional amount of painkiller through the intravenous line where the serum goes. The limits of this amount are predetermined by the programming of the device. The aim here is to relieve the patient’s pain and provide comfort by using the lowest dose of medication.

Is morphine harmful for your post-operative pain?

Absolutely not, as long as severe pain persists, patients given appropriate dose of morphine do not become morphine. The patient, whose pain decreases after the surgery, can get up and walk in a short time and can breathe more easily, so the recovery accelerates. When the severity of the pain decreases after 24-48 hours, pain treatment is continued with other painkillers instead of morphine.

The situation of patients who were previously addicted to drugs and received treatment is different.

Is blood given in every surgery?

No, but when necessary, blood is given to a patient who has undergone surgery. Today, the limits of giving blood are further narrowed. Giving blood in the operation is related to the amount of bleeding in the operation, the preoperative blood values ​​of the patient, the age of the patient and cardiac functions.