What should families ask before anesthesia?
A plain-language guide to help patients understand anesthesia review, fasting, allergies, and post-operative monitoring.
Essential questions
Before surgery, patients should understand who will give anesthesia and what monitoring will happen after the operation.
- What type of anesthesia is planned?
- When should I stop food and water?
- Should I continue regular medicines?
- How will pain be controlled after surgery?
Information to share
Tell the anesthesia team about allergies, previous anesthesia problems, loose teeth, sleep apnea, heart disease, diabetes, blood thinners, and pregnancy possibility.
Please read: This page is general patient education, not medical advice.
It cannot tell you whether you personally need surgery, because that depends on your examination, your
reports and your medical history. Use it to prepare questions for your own doctor. Never delay treatment
your doctor has advised because of something you read here. In an emergency, call your local emergency
number now — 112 in India, the EU and many other countries, or 108 for an ambulance in India.
The fasting instruction question would have helped us. We did not know water timing was different from food timing.