Do they wake you up in the operating room?
Most people are awake during operations with local or regional anesthesia. But general anesthesia is used for major surgery and when it's important that you be unconscious during a procedure. General anesthesia has 3 main stages: going under (induction), staying under (maintenance) and recovery (emergence).
Different studies have estimated the frequency of anesthesia awareness at as little as 1 in almost 17,000 procedures, and as often as 1 in 600 . The accepted average is about 1 in 1,000.
“For the most part, patients assume they require general anesthesia and must sleep during surgery. However, in some cases it is safer for the patient to remain awake,” says Dr. John Oyston, Chief of Anesthesiology at The Scarborough Hospital, General campus.
General anesthesia is a combination of medications that put you in a sleep-like state before a surgery or other medical procedure. Under general anesthesia, you don't feel pain because you're completely unconscious. General anesthesia usually uses a combination of intravenous drugs and inhaled gasses (anesthetics).