In the Operating Room
Regional Anesthesia team caring for patient during transport to OR.
You will be transported to the OR by members of the anesthesia team caring for you in the operating room. We will use the same transport bed, oxygen mask, and warm blankets from the RAAPM area.
The full OR team will greet you and verify your name, side of surgery, and your type of surgery in the OR. Your OR anesthesia team will watch your breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure throughout your surgery. There will always be someone with you keeping you safe. We will give you fluids and medicines through the IV line. After you are sedated (drowsy) and numb, the nurses will place a catheter in your bladder if your surgery is planned to be involved, long, or your surgeons feel you will need one after surgery. If you need one, it will remain until you are able to easily walk to the bathroom on your own. Operating rooms are cool, but we will keep you as warm as possible with forced-air warming blankets or warmed fabric blankets.
The duration of surgery varies with each person, surgery, and surgeon. While you are in surgery, your family may wait and (hopefully) relax in the surgical waiting room. They will be given a pager if they leave to attend to other matters or go to the cafeteria in the hospital. The nurses working with your surgeon will call your family periodically to tell your family how you are doing during surgery. When your surgery is over, you will go to one of our Post-Anesthesia Care Units (PACU) located within the OR suite.