Patient information

General anaesthesia.

Being asleep for your surgery - what it involves, what we do while you're asleep, and the process of you waking up afterwards.

What "going under" really means

General anaesthesia is a carefully controlled, medication-induced sleep. You are completely unconscious and feel nothing. It is not a deeper version of ordinary sleep, but a reversible state we create and maintain second by second. Dreams are also possible while you are anaesthetised, so dream well!

Before you sleep 🛏️

We meet and review your health and any past anaesthetics, recap components of your anaesthetic survey, then place a small cannula in your hand or arm. Once you are inside the operating theatre, monitors go on, you breathe some oxygen, and the medicines flow in through the drip. Most people are asleep within a minute, usually while taking a few slow deep breaths.

While you're under 🌒

Throughout your surgery I stay beside you - continuously monitoring your breathing, heart rate & rhythm, blood pressure, oxygen levels, depth of anaesthesia, airway pressures and flow-rates, muscle relaxation, temperature, plus many more variables, all while making adjustments to the medications given in relation to these measurements, moment to moment. Your airway is supported, and your comfort and safety are the focus.

Waking up 🌞

As the surgery finishes, the medications being infused and gases administered are wound back. After this, the concentrations of the combination of these drugs will no longer be high enough to cause unconsciousness, and as a result, you will gradually & gently wake up. This may occur in the theatre itself or the recovery area, depending on where your anaesthetist has decided is better suited depending on your personal, surgical, and anaesthetic factors. You will most often feel as though no time has passed, asking "have we started yet?" and perhaps be in disbelief it's all finished. Usually, the initial sense of grogginess, with modern anaesthetics, resolves within an hour or two.