To ensure that your recovery is as smooth and trouble-free as possible, I will continue to monitor your condition in the recovery area. More pain medication will be adminsitered if you are not comfortable, and maybe continued in the ward.
Relatively common side effects are feeling drowsy, dizziness, sore throat, blurred vision and mild nausea. These are temporary and usually pass quickly. Please contact me if you have worrying after effects.
If you are having day surgery, make sure there is someone to accompany you home. It is not wise to drive, make important decisions, usa any dangerous equipment, sign legal documents or drink alcohol on the day of surgery. A prescription for strong pain killers will be given to you if you undergo a painful procedure.
As stated previously, the risks of anaesthesia in Australia are very low. Some patients are, however, at increased risk of complications due to their health status and type of surgery they are undergoing.
Infrequent complications include: bruising at the injection site, temporary breathing difficulties such as asthma, muscle pains, headaches, damage to teeth and dental prostheses, lip and tongue injury, temporary voice changes and temporary nerve injury. Waking up in the middle of an operation (more likely during emergency surgery or Caesarean section) is very unusal.
There can also be some very rare and serious complications including: seizures, heart attack, stroke, severe allergic reactions. liver or kidny failure, lung damage such as pneumonia, paraplegia or quadriplegia, damge to voice box, infection from blood transfusion and permanent nerve injury from epidural injections. The possibility of death is remote but does exist. For healthy patients the risk of death is approximately 1/200,000.