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What do I need to know about anesthesia before having breast surgery?

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Topics (Tags):

Breast Surgery Surgery Anesthesia

Topics:

Breast Surgery X Surgery X Anesthesia X

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Diseases:

Breast Cancer All Cancers

Diseases:

Breast Cancer All Cancers X

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Answers (1)

DrAttai (Physician - Surgery - Breast (Verified) ) - 01 / 23 / 2012

Most breast surgery is performed under general, or total anesthesia. General anesthesia is very safe, but not without some risk of complication. Most commonly, a combination of medications is used - usually an inhalational agent (anesthetic gas), a narcotic (morphine derivative) for pain control, amnestic agent (medications similar to valium), and an intravenous anesthetic agent are used. Using multiple agents that have different mechanisms of action means that lower doses of each drug can be used. Anti-nausea medications are often used as well. The anesthetic medications currently used are all relatively short-acting, which minimizes the "hangover" effect of the general anesthesia. However some patients still will take a long time to wake up, or may have significant nausea after surgery.

Some lumpectomies are performed using local anesthesia with intravenous sedation ("twilight sleep"). Some centers are starting to use regional blocks for mastectomy cases, so that the patient is awake or just lightly sedated, but numb in the area of the surgery - in some studies this has shown to decrease the amount of narcotics used after surgery which may reduce nausea.

Some lumpectomies are performed using local anesthesia with intravenous sedation ("twilight sleep"). Some centers are starting to use regional blocks for mastectomy cases, so that the patient is awake or just lightly sedated, but numb in the area of the surgery - in some studies this has shown to decrease the amount of narcotics used after surgery which may reduce nausea.

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Latest Activity: 01 / 23 / 2012
Views: 226
Followed By: 2 members