For Patients
What to Expect on the Day of Your Surgery
A calm, step-by-step walkthrough from arrival through the recovery suite so you can feel prepared and confident.
Clinical Perspectives
For Patients
Articles on anesthesia technique, safety standards and recovery — for the patients Dr. John Seitz, MD cares for.
For Patients
General vs. Regional Anesthesia: How the Choice Is Made
A plain-language explanation of the two major anesthesia approaches and why one might be recommended for your procedure.
For Patients
Managing Common Anesthesia Side Effects After Surgery
What is commonly felt after anesthesia, why it happens, and what your providers can do about sore throat, grogginess, nausea and dizziness.
For Patients
How to Prepare for Anesthesia: What Your Team Will Ask and Why
The pre-anesthesia evaluation, what to bring, and how to talk about your medications before a procedure.
For Patients
Will I Be Awake? Understanding the Levels of Sedation
Minimal, moderate and deep sedation and general anesthesia — what each means, and how your anesthesiologist plans for change.
For Patients
What Is Monitored During Anesthesia, and Why
The four things your anesthesiologist is required to watch throughout your procedure, and the standard behind them.
For Patients
After Your Procedure: The Recovery Room, Nausea and Going Home
What happens in the recovery area, how nausea and sore throat are handled, and who decides that you can leave.
For Patients
How Long Does Anesthesia Stay in Your System?
How anesthetic drugs leave the body, why recovery time differs between patients, and what to ask before you drive or return to work.
For Patients
The Labor Epidural: What It Is, When You Can Have It, and Common Side Effects
How a labor epidural works, when it can be placed, what the evidence says about its effects on labor, and the side effects worth knowing about.
For Patients
Spinal or Epidural for a C-Section? How Anesthesia for Cesarean Delivery Works
Why most cesarean deliveries are done with you awake, the difference between a spinal and an epidural, and what you will feel in the operating room.
For Patients
Anesthesia for an Emergency C-Section: What Happens and Why
How anesthesia is chosen when a cesarean becomes urgent, when general anesthesia is needed, and how you and your baby are protected.
For Patients
After Delivery: Recovery, Pain Relief and Breastfeeding After Anesthesia
When numbness wears off, how pain is managed after a cesarean, and what lactation medicine says about breastfeeding after anesthesia.
For Patients
Anesthesia for Egg Retrieval: What to Expect at the Fertility Clinic
How sedation for egg retrieval works, how to prepare, what you will feel, and how soon you can go home.