Types of Anesthesia

While there are many types and levels of anesthesia — medication to keep you from feeling pain during surgery — general anesthesia is most commonly used for major operations, such as knee and hip replacements, heart surgeries, and many types of surgical procedures to treat cancer. Many of these surgeries are lifesaving or life-changing and would not be possible without general anesthesia.

General anesthesia is medicine that is administered by a physician anesthesiologist through a mask or an IV placed in the vein. While the anesthesia is working, you will be unconscious, and many of your body’s functions will slow down or need help to work effectively. A tube may be placed in your throat to help you breathe. During surgery or the procedure, the physician anesthesiologist will monitor your heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, and other vital signs to make sure they are normal and steady while you remain unconscious and free of pain.

Today, physicians have many ways to make sure their patients are as comfortable as possible during surgery or procedures for diagnosing medical conditions. One common type of pain control is called sedation, which relaxes you and sometimes makes you fall asleep. Sedation, also known as monitored anesthesia care, conscious sedation, or twilight sedation, typically is used for minor surgeries or for shorter, less complex procedures, when an injection of local anesthetic isn’t sufficient but deeper general anesthesia isn’t necessary. 

An analgesic is a medication used to achieve analgesia, or pain relief, and is often combined with sedation. Procedures using sedation and analgesics may be performed in a hospital or in an outpatient setting, such as a same-day surgery center, your physician’s office, or a dentist’s office.

Regional anesthesia is a type of pain management for surgery that numbs a large part of the body, such as from the waist down. The medication is delivered through an injection or small tube called a catheter and is used when a simple injection of local anesthetic is not enough, and when it’s better for the patient to be awake. This type of anesthesia, including spinal blocks and epidurals, is often used for childbirth.