Anesthetic

Q. What influences the choice between local and general anesthesic when having a surgical procedure?

A. The choice of the anesthetic depends mainly on the extent of the parts of the body to be operated on, the expected duration of surgery and on the patient’s weight.

Most operations can be carried out under local anesthetic with sedation - that is, the patient is awake but relaxed and insensitive to pain - in outpatient care. As regards more complex surgery or very “emotional” patients, it is preferable to operate under general anesthetic.

Q. I’ve heard of “local anaesthesia with sedation”. What does it mean? Is it just as safe and effective?

A. Local anesthetic with sedation is as safe and effective as the other kinds of anesthetics, and it is recommended especially in the case of small-scale cosmetic surgery operations (eg small liposuction, minor rhinoplasty, otoplasty, etc.); it allows the patient to stay awake, but relaxed, and not to feel pain.

Sedation is performed by administering anxiolytics intravenously (to reduce the fear and the anxiety caused by the operation), analgesics (to reduce pain), hypnotic substances (to help the patient nod off) or drugs which induce amnesia with respect to the operation itself and to its duration.