For most parents, anesthesia is the most worrying thing. I can completely understand this concern. After all, for most parents, anesthesia is, after all, unfamiliar and unknown to them. In fact, with the development of modern medicine, anesthesia, especially general anesthesia, is actually very safe, both physically and intellectually. Here is a compilation of some of the issues that parents are more concerned about, for your reference. Since I am not a professional anesthesiologist myself, I mainly refer to some information, please correct me if I am inappropriate. Why can’t surgery be done under local anesthesia? For the vast majority of children, especially infants, it is difficult to safely complete a procedure if it is not under general anesthesia. It is impossible for most children to complete the surgery quietly and cooperatively while awake, and inappropriate movements such as fussing and moving during surgery not only make the surgery more difficult, but also increase the risk of surgery. Also, when a local anesthesia operation is performed, the operation itself is more painful and can cause fear in your child, plus some preparations and operations before the surgery can also cause some inexplicable fear in your child to not cooperate well with the surgery. You can imagine the serious injuries and consequences of improper movement during surgery. Can you use the simplest, smallest amount of anesthesia possible, or just a few quieting agents? In fact, this method is often less safe than general anesthesia. This method may be effective for certain clinical examinations, such as those that do not produce pain but can be somewhat frightening, such as CT examinations, MRI examinations, etc. But for the vast majority of procedures, this method may be effective. However, for the vast majority of procedures, this method can be more dangerous. The most dangerous phase of anesthesia is at the beginning of anesthesia and near the end of the procedure when the anesthesia is relatively light, which, like an airplane flight, is often more dangerous during takeoff and descent. Therefore, the induction phase at the beginning of anesthesia and the awakening phase at the end of anesthesia, which is the shallow anesthesia phase, are the most difficult times for anesthesia operations. The relatively deep anesthesia phase is the phase where no problems generally arise This is like an airplane flight, where the cruise phase is relatively safe. Asking the anesthesiologist to use the smallest amount of anesthetic would be like asking the pilot to maintain the plane at a very low altitude, like flying over the top of a tree, which is rather more dangerous. Who will anesthetize my child? Will I see it before surgery? The doctor who will anesthetize your child will be a highly trained and credentialed qualified physician, and will usually have one or two assistants. Also, the doctor who anesthetizes an infant will generally have specialized training in pediatrics and be an anesthesiologist who can specialize in anesthesia for infants. During the surgery, the anesthesiologist will work well with the surgeon to complete the surgery. Before the surgery, the anesthesiologist will meet with you and inform you about the anesthesia. Can a child have a death due to an anesthesia accident? It is possible and does happen, but it is very rare, especially for healthy children. Most of these cases occur in complex conditions or major surgeries. Most of the thousands of general anesthesia procedures performed each year in countries around the world are completed successfully. The rate of anesthesia accidents is about 1 in 300,000. This rate is relatively low, for example, the annual rate of death from penicillin injections is 1 in 80,000. The rate of death from a traffic accident in a car in the United States is 1 in 6,500! Therefore, the probability of such accidents is relatively low, and if they do occur, there is usually a specific reason for them. Will the child be allergic to the anesthetic? Will testing be done before surgery? There are usually no allergies to anesthetic, but very few people have severe reactions to anesthetic. These cases will be handled accordingly by the anesthesiologist. Therefore, there is usually no preoperative testing of anesthetics (e.g., skin test). Can I stay with my child before the anesthesia? Due to the rules of the operating room, parents are generally not allowed to stay with their children. Moreover, since most parents are unfamiliar with some of the operations involved, these operations themselves can cause a certain amount of tension and anxiety, or even fear, for you, and this tension and even fear on your part can in turn affect your child. The induction time before anesthesia is very short, and the pain and fear caused to the child is very limited. Why does my child wake up crying so much? Unlike adults, most children will wake up crying. This is not because children feel more pain than adults, or use less pain medication, but because of some characteristics of the child itself. There are more factors that create this situation, such as unfamiliar environment, unfamiliar people, and so on that cause some tension and even fear to the child. Of course, the pain itself can also make your child cry (the pain after surgery is usually not very obvious, because we will use some methods and medications to stop the pain). Also, after surgery, your child will cry more for various reasons, including hunger, thirst, nausea, vomiting, discomfort caused by the surgery, nervousness, etc. For most children, it usually calms down slowly after a very short period of time, especially after eating and drinking.