A nurse will escort you on a transport stretcher to the operation or intervention room. You will be received by our team in the operation room, which will take care of you and make sure that a procedure goes well and safe.
You will be transferred from a stretcher bed to a surgical table afterwards. Following that, standard monitoring devices will be attached – ECG, blood pressure gauge and pulse oxymeter to monitor blood pressure, heart rate and oxygen saturation level. A plastic tube will be inserted into a peripheral vein of the arm, through which you will receive infusions and medications.
- for general anaesthesia
An oxygen mask will be put on your face and you will breathe calmly and deeply. An intravenous line will be simultaneously placed through which you will receive anaesthetic drugs (you may feel dizzy, have a need to sneeze, you may experience warmth in your arm). After you fall asleep, we shall insert a tube in your trachea (endotracheal tube) or mask in the pharynx (supraglottic device) by which you will be attached to the anaesthesia machine, which will assist or completely control your breathing during a procedure. General anaesthesia will be maintained by pain medications, intravenous or inhalation anaesthetics and muscle relaxants as needed. Our anaesthesia team will continuously take care of your anaesthesia and safety. Anaesthetics will be stopped upon the end of a procedure and we will remove a breathing tube when you successfully start to breathe on your own.
Then you will be transferred to the post-operative intensive care unit, where you will be continuously monitored by nurses. Your vital body functions will be monitored (blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen saturation level, but monitoring may be expanded as needed) and pain assessment will be conducted. Analgesics will be applied to reduce a patient’s level of pain as much as possible. It is normal to feel tired and dizzy during this period because of a residual effect of the drugs you received during anesthesia.
After 1-2 hours (even longer if necessary) you will be transferred to your apartment where a medical care will be available as well.
- for regional anaesthesia (spinal, epidural):
You will receive drugs through the previously inserted intravenous line, so you can relax and feel comfortable during the nerve block performance. An anaesthesiologist will explain the body position you will have to take. Applying palpation (by touching), an anaesthesiologist will find the most adequate area on the spine to perform the nerve block. Afterwards, an anaesthesiologist will disinfect the back with disinfection products (possible cold sensation on the skin area which is being disinfected) and cover the sterile area around a puncture site. Firstly you will receive a local anaesthetic (you will feel a small stick of a thin needle) so the skin and subcutaneous tissue would become numb at the site of the block. The performance of spinal anaesthesia includes an insertion of a very thin needle in the space between the two vertebrae and a local anaesthetic is applied in the fluid running through the spinal canal. A needle is removed afterwards. You will feel warmth in the legs, followed by numbness and heaviness, so you will not be able to move them temporarily. A catheter is inserted through a guiding needle between two vertebrae for epidural analgesia. A local anaesthetic is applied through a catheter, which can cause a mild pressure sensation on the back at the beginning. The lower part of the body will become numb in 20 minutes and you won’t probably be able to move your legs temporarily. In the both cases (spinal or epidural anaesthesia) a urinary catheter will be inserted. It will be removed as the anaesthesia wears off. You will receive drugs through a previously inserted intravenous line, so you can relax and feel comfortable during a surgical procedure.
You will be transferred to the post-operative intensive care unit after a surgical procedure. Numbness and weakness in the legs lasts for 2-5 hours after a spinal anaesthesia, depending on a type of a local anaesthetic. When the nerve block starts to wear off, you will feel a pain. You have to ask for pain medications early enough to prevent the pain from reaching its full intensity. Pain medications can be administered through an epidural catheter. If the successful pain management can be achieved by any other routes of administration (tablets, intravenous analgesics), the catheter will be removed.
After 1-2 hours (even longer if necessary) you will be transferred to your apartment where a medical care will be available as well.
A physician will determine the time you can start eating and drinking, depending on a type of a procedure and anesthesia. The food is prepared in the restaurant in Special Hospital Agram, depending on your health needs and other nutrition specifications.
Visits are allowed with a prior agreement with our medical staff.
