At Cayuga Health, only board-certified anesthesiologists administer anesthesia. By way of contrast, many hospitals have systems whereby a single anesthesiologist may supervise a number of nurse anesthetists in different rooms who are administering patient anesthesia.

• To ensure maximum control and patient safety, we only recruit anesthesiologists who perform their own anesthesia. We have ten anesthesiologists on staff.
• One anesthesiologist will take care of you from beginning to end, which increases safety and provides continuity for each patient.
• There are many choices regarding the specific anesthesia to be used. This decision is made jointly by you and your anesthesiologist with input from your surgeon, so that the anesthesia choice is appropriate for you and the anesthetic plan addresses your individual concerns.

More about Anesthesia

Patients typically have lots of questions for their anesthesiologists. Here, anesthesiologist Dr. Mattison Burt answers some of the most frequently asked questions.

What is anesthesia?

Anesthesia is the loss of sensation using medication and is a crucial part of the surgical experience. The anesthetized patient is not physically aware of the surgical procedure. Anesthesia can be administered in a number of ways. Under general anesthesia, the patient is completely unconscious. Regional and local anesthesias target specific areas of the body affected by the surgery; the patient is awake but typically sedated.

How do you determine the appropriate type of anesthesia?

The type of anesthesia depends largely on the surgical procedure being performed. General anesthesia is typically used for surgery of the chest, abdomen, brain, and spine, as well as for major breast surgery and laparoscopic removal of the gallbladder or appendix. Regional anesthesia, which allows us to anesthetize or “block” specific nerves, is used for a wide variety of surgeries ranging from joint repair and replacement to hernia repair and cesarean section.

Will the anesthesia make me sick?

Studies show that the primary fear people have about receiving anesthesia is that it will make them nauseous and want to vomit. (The fear of pain is secondary, interestingly.) However, there have been significant advances in anti-nausea medications we use to prevent and treat nausea following surgery and anesthesia. We are also better at identifying risk factors that may indicate a higher incidence of nausea and vomiting. Among these are patients undergoing abdominal laparoscopic surgery and people having procedures that require a high amount of narcotic for pain control.

What are some of the important advances in anesthesia?

By far the most important are those that have increased the safety of administering anesthesia. The risk of death or significant injury from anesthesia is extremely low with technology such as pulse oximetry, which continually measures the level of oxygen in the patient’s blood, and capnography, which measures the patient’s exhaled carbon dioxide. This helps confirm the proper placement of breathing devices that secure the patient’s airway. Automation in the operating room, such as automated blood pressure, electrocardiograms, and other technologies, provide continuous updated information about the patient.

Another important advance is the expanded use of regional anesthesia (nerve blocks), which minimizes the undesirable effects of general anesthesia. Nerve blocks can last for several hours after surgery, giving the patient significant pain relief after the procedure. The result is that patients need less pain medication and their regimen of pain medication is shorter. A considerable amount of surgery performed at Cayuga Medical Center, Schuyler Hospital and Surgicare is done with regional anesthesia.

What is the role of sedation in regional anesthesia?

The medications used to sedate patients who receive regional anesthesia are easily tolerated, short acting, and they clear from the body quickly, usually with minor after-affects. Most patients are sedated with nerve blocks. Sedation makes the patient comfortable and relaxed while the surgeon is working. These medicines have a calming effect and they also allow the patient to lie in what might otherwise be an uncomfortable position without feeling discomfort. Some of these sedatives also have amnesic properties; the patient can be awake during the procedure but may not remember it. A small number of patients choose to observe their surgery, typically shoulder or knee arthroscopy, and they ask not to be sedated. This allows them to watch the procedure on the video monitor.

In summary, the new anesthesia and sedation medications are more focused and their properties are intended to work in very specific ways with fewer side affects. I believe regional anesthesia is under utilized in many medical centers. We use regional anesthesia whenever possible at Cayuga Health, which I think has a genuine benefit for our patients.