Anesthesia Fear (Research, Video 1:30)

Afraid of anesthesia? You definitely belong to a large group of the population. Your sex and age can also impact your feelings about this procedure. Research on surgical anesthesia involving 400 patients with 80% experiencing preoperative fear reveals the following top three causes of anesthesia fear:

1) Fear of postoperative pain (Will you be in pain after the operation?)

2) Fear of intraoperative awareness (Will you be awake when you shouldn’t be during the operation?)

3) Fear of being sleepy postoperatively (Will you be sleepy when the operation is over?)

Other fears related to surgical anesthesia include drains, needles, saying personal information, and not waking up at all after surgery. What roles do sex and age play? Females are more likely to experience fear before surgery, and patients over 40 years old are at higher risk of being afraid.

Are anesthesia fears unwarranted? No, there are always risks associated with any anesthetic procedure. However, serious complications such as paralysis and death are rare. Because so many people fear anesthesia before surgery, now would be a good time to relieve some of that anxiety with this video featuring Dr. Richard L. Kahn of Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) who addresses the safety of surgical anesthesia and possibilities regarding what to expect:

Frances Shani Parker, Author
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