During general anaesthesia, you will be placed in a sleep-like state for the duration of the operation.

The aims of general anaesthesia are:

• Hypnosis (sleep)
• Analgesia (freedom from pain)
• Relaxation
  (muscle atony, not required with every instance of anaesthesia)
• Vegetative reflex suppression
  (abolition of protective reflexes such as coughing and swallowing)

On the day of surgery, you will be administered a sedative while you are on the general ward.
A short while later you will be taken to the operating theatre.

In the preparation room, a tube (plastic cannula) will first be inserted into a vein and an infusion (drip) will then be attached.

In the operating theatre, you will be connected to our monitoring equipment:

• ECG
• Blood pressure cuff
• Oxygen saturation measurement (a clip on the finger)

These devices are used by the anaesthetist to continuously monitor your circulation during the surgical operation.

You will then be administered drugs, which pass into your vein through the tube (drip), causing you to quickly and gently fall asleep. Once you are fast asleep in a deep sleep, we will insert a thin respiratory tube (intubation) through your mouth into your windpipe or a laryngeal mask will be placed in front of your windpipe to supply you with the required amount of air and oxygen for the duration of surgery.

These tubes are connected to our modern anaesthetic equipment, which provides us with important data for monitoring your status.

The anaesthesia will either be continued with drugs injected into the vein or with anaesthetic gases mixed with the respirational air.

The drugs will be slowly tapered off towards the end of the operation so that you will begin to breathe on your own. Once this is the case, we will remove the respiratory tube and you will wake up a short while afterwards.

Depending on the scope and duration of surgery and taking into account your general state of health, we will then decide whether you can be transferred back to the general ward or whether temporary nursing in the recovery room or transfer to the clinic's own intensive care ward is necessary.

This will normally be discussed with you during the pre-anaesthetic briefing.