Your Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist, or CRNA, will consult with you just before your surgery. Along with your surgeon, they will decide on the appropriate choice of anesthesia based on your procedure, your medical history, and your personal preference.
Types of anesthesia
General anesthesia
This type of anesthesia is used for many types of surgery. The entire body, including the brain, is put to sleep. The patient has no awareness, feels nothing, and remembers nothing of the surgery. It can be given by mask, injection, or both.
Regional anesthesia
Regional anesthesia, or spinal/epidural, is achieved by injecting a specified specific amount of local anesthetic directly into the area of the body where the surgery is to be performed. Regional anesthesia is especially advantageous for patients who are having a baby (vaginal or Cesarean section) and for the elderly. It can be used for most surgeries below the umbilicus (belly button).
Bier block
This is a type of regional anesthetic reserved for surgery of the arm or hand. This technique is best used in surgery that can be accomplished within 30 to 60 minutes.
Local anesthesia/monitored anesthesia/conscious sedation
These types of anesthesia involve the injection of the local anesthetic directly into the area requiring surgery and may be supplemented with IV sedative medications.
- Local only: The surgeon administers the local medication directly into the surgical site with no IV sedation given.
- Local/MAC (monitored anesthesia care): Local anesthesia is injected, and an anesthesia provider (CRNA) administers IV sedation.
- MAC only: No local is administered, such as for colonoscopies and other such procedures.
- Conscious sedation: This can be either with or without local anesthetic injections, and sedation is administered by a Registered Nurse as directed by the surgeon.