Intra-operative activities

General anesthesia involves the use of multiple, different medications that are chosen on a case-by-case basis by the anesthesia care team. Decisions are made based on the patient characteristics and on the length and type of surgical procedure. The majority of the time, adults receive an intravenous induction agent, such as a short-acting barbiturate, or sedative-hypnotic. Maintenance of anesthesia is usually with a combination of inhalation anesthetic agents (gases), opioid narcotics, muscle relaxants, and sedative hypnotic medications. An anesthesia team member is with you the entire surgical procedure. They monitor your vital signs (EKG, oxygen concentration and saturation, carbon dioxide, blood pressure, temperature, blood loss, urine output, and fluid and electrolyte administration). They are constantly adjusting the level of anesthesia for your needs.

Monitored Anesthesia Care (MAC) is sedation with local anesthetic infiltration. Local anesthetic infiltration is the injection of numbing medicine into the surgical area. Many procedures involving the skin and some deeper procedures can be done in this manner. Most of the sedation is usually given right before the local anesthetic is injected in order to decrease the pain of the injection. Patients who are nervous about being in the operating room can be sedated through the entire procedure.