What is the role of the Anesthesiologist during the surgery?

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Hockey Heart

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Joined
Mar 1, 2011
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Location
Evanston, IL
Hello,

My pre-surgery appointment with the surgeon is March 30, 2011 and I am getting my questions together to ask him. I was looking at the sticky post regarding this topic and noticed this question. Of course I will ask the surgeon this question, but I also wanted to get your insight into this so I may be better informed going into this appointment.

What is the role of the Anesthesiologist during the surgery (Bi-Cuspid Aortic Valve replacement with tissue valve)?

Thank You,
Scott
 
The Anesthesiologist at my surgery said "hi" to me when I was wheeled into the OR. I was then moved to the OR table, he came over, smiled nicely at me and said "I'm gonna give you a little something to make you relax" he put in the snooze juice and I was out. I didn't see him again so what he did while I was in sleepy land I do not know. Better to ask your questions about his involvement when you see your surgeon.
 
The anesthesiologist holds your life in his hands!

He keeps you sedated and pain free during surgery, and begins the pain control for after surgery. He really needs to know exactly what you weigh, what drugs you are on, what adverse reactions you may have had in the past to any medications, especially how you have reacted in the past to prior anesthesias, and whether you have ever had problems being intubated.

A good anesthesiologist can help your recovery from surgery be more pleasant, i.e. I always wake up from surgery with the shakes and in screaming pain requiring demerol ASAP. I told this to the anesthesiologist before my last surgery and he told me he would take care of it. He started the demerol before I woke up. It was great! no pain, no shakes, no chills.


Kiss his FEET when you speak to him.
<=== my brother in law is an anesthesiologist. They don't get enough respect.
 
Thanks for the feedback. I had back surgery in 2007 and as soon as I woke up I was up and feeling great and trying to put my clothes on to leave. Of course they told me to remain in my bed until I was formally checked out and seen by everyone. So I am guessing that I won't have any adverse reactions from the anesthesia.

However, one thing I have read on here that concerns me is that some people experience memory loss and/or impairment following this surgery. Is this a due to being under for so long or is it related to being on the heart lung machine or something else?
 
The anethesiologist I had asked the most questions of me in the meeting with him prior to surgery. Personally I think an anethesiologist is more directly important to the surgery going well than anyone else. I felt really assured I was in the right hands after the meeting. Waking up in ICU confirmed that as it wasn't as bad as I imagined. Yes.. there was memory loss afterwards- I don't think I was on a heart lung machine, the surgeon said their proceedure was the big chill and I was "mostly dead" for 16 and a half minutes...Yah..!!!! WHAT??? Memory loss was names, what day it was - background stuff I normally have in the windows program my brain operates on. Hard to open the files but they did open. It went away...I dunno 6, 8wks post op something like that. Bob
 
Hi Hockey!

Hi Hockey!

Anathesiologists (sp?) are amazing people in my book. They do have your life in their hands. My experience is that they are kind of funny whacky people. All I know is that "happy juice" they give you before they knock you out is the best stuff in the world. lol!!

I have had some surgery in the past and I really love that stuff. I don't know what it is but I could see someone becoming addicted to it. When you are wheeled into a surgery room, one can be pretty nervous and overwhelmed. But they usually give you a relaxing dose of that stuff and it REALLY helps!

I too am worried about the heart/lung machine and the cognative issues that can happen afterwards. Not everyone gets this but if you do, it is temporary. Memory can be impaired as well as doing some simple things like typing. Just remember, you are in good hands in the hospital and the experts are aware of this stuff. It won't be a big deal since you won't have to be dealing with regular life at that point anyway.

Do you have a surgery date??
 
Scott, you are already asking great questions and cudos for that ...as Laurie (agility dog) said they have your life in their hands and monitor all of your vitals during surgery they work as a team in concert wit the surgeon .....on the second trip to the OR it was a Sunday early morning (Fathers Day) and the two of them were there for little ol me ....they spent hours sand hours pouring over records and results (according o my wife) to determine why I was the way I was .

Be truthful and forethright with them ahead (my dad was not honest as to his consummption of rye and the they had a heck of a time keeping him under.
 
LOL, but this is the truth.
The only question/statement I said to my anesthesiologist as I was laying there waiting to wheeled into the OR was, "make sure you give me the good stuff, cause I don't want to wake up during the operation". He had a little chuckle, but you should have seen the looks I/we got from the other patients waiting. My spouse just shook their head.

Sorry if I have high-jacked your thread Scott.
 
In my pre-surgery visit, I spoke with the assistant and had her make a note in my file that I was highly sensitive
to meds and don't like being "overdosed". Well, I got really whacked out anyway, and my poor husband had to sit
beside my bed while I asked him the same question over and over for hours......Memory was scrambled a bit, but
it all works out over time.
 
My question to the anesthesiologist was what happens if you have a problem with the anesthetic equipment and how often is it calibrated. He told me that they always have 100% backup and that the equipment goes through an automatic diagnostic selftest when it is powers up.
Being administered the wrong dose I assume could do serious damage, I was told that it was the least of my worries and he would not elaborate. "Ignorance is bliss" came to mind, what you don't know can't hurt you!
The day of the surgery we place a lot of trust in everyone in that theater. For me it seemed that there were a few anesthesiologist's in the room and they took me out of the equation fairly quickly, the old watch this monitor and oh ya by the way, you won't remember any of this! Next thing I know I am waking up with a new heart valve. Waking up was the best part, not gonna lie!
 
As the others have said, the anesthesiologist is the one who puts you under, monitors your vitals, keeps you under for the entire procedure and brings you back out of the sleep state after.

I chatted with my anesthesiologists, answered all of their questions, and then just trusted them. We all did fine (all my complications were from other issues).

After the surgery, the only short-term negative effect I had was that I couldn't type straight for a week or two. No cognitive issues, no lost memory (except those of the surgery and recovery room), no missing mental connections. This part of my journey was truly a non-issue. Hope yours is as well.
 
AgilityDog said:
The anesthesiologist holds your life in his hands!

He keeps you sedated and pain free during surgery, and begins the pain control for after surgery. He really needs to know exactly what you weigh, what drugs you are on, what adverse reactions you may have had in the past to any medications, especially how you have reacted in the past to prior anesthesias, and whether you have ever had problems being intubated.

Kiss his FEET when you speak to him.
<=== my brother in law is an anesthesiologist. They don't get enough respect.
Click to expand...

Amen! He or she is as important as the surgeon.
 
Thank you all for the excellent feedback. I visit the Surgeon this Wednesday and will get all my questions answered and will hopefully be given a surgery date. I'll let you all know how the appointment goes.
 
Scott,

I requested my complete records from my OHS, so I have my anesthesia record. From the looks of it, the anesthesiologist DOES hold your life in their hands. Here's what's recorded:

  • pre-op chart review
  • heart/lung machine number
  • various machine tests
  • size and entry point of various tubes and lines
  • med names/amounts/times
  • anesthesiologist start/end time
  • surgery start/end time
  • pump start/end time
  • all vitals at 15 minute intervals
  • record of intubation procedure
  • summary of surgery
  • noteworthy events
Hope this info helps answer your questions.

Marcia
 
Memory loss and cloudy thinking for some period of time after cardiac surgery is often nicknamed "pumphead". There are theories about why it occurs. If you really want to know more, read this account :

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=pumphead-heart-lung-machine

Most everybody here worried about it before surgery but most didn't experience it after. It was not among my reactions to surgery. Mine were stomach bloating after eating for about a month (probably secondary to anesthesias affect on the GI tract), lots of trouble falling asleep for about 2 weeks, weakness from surgery and anemia due to blood loss.
 
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