Expert: Paula Damgaard - 3/11/2008

Question
My mother has been diagnosed with bladder cancer and is to have a TUR procedure soon.  We are trying to learn which anesthetic would be best and have the least after-effects.  Is IV thiopental the best option?  Thank you!

Answer
Hi Marilyn, I am not sure exactly what IV thiopental is, not having any connections to surgery in a long time, however, I do know that dementia patients take a longer time to recover from anesthesia.  Therefore, whenever any of our patients come in and ask what they should do we generally recommend spinal anesthesia, like what they give to birthing mothers.  

This way they can give the patient a lighter sedative to relax them, yet use the spinal injection to numb the area.  

Hope that helps and good luck with your mom.  If they need to go with general anesthesia, just be prepared for her to be really out of it afterwards and it will take longer for her to come back to baseline.  After surgery it will be important to make sure she is medicated for comfort, but remember that pain medicines will cause her to be out of it as well, so the sooner you can get her off the prescription meds for pain and on to something lighter, like Advil the better off she will be.  

Paula