Expert: Ronald Levy, M.D. - 8/20/2009

Question
Hello Doctor. I lost my right eye to retinoblastoma when I was two years old.  Im 26 now and I have been wearing an artificial eye since then.  Every couple of years I have a new one made.  Recently, my lower eye lid sagged, so it cannot hold the prosthesis properly in place anymore.  My doctor suggested that I have surgery.  He will take skin from my lower lip and graft it to my right lower eye lid so it could hold a prosthetic eye.  He said Im going to have to go under general anesthesia.  Doctor, I know you have been asked this question a million times but I am very worried about general anesthesia..  Can you tell me again how safe it is?  I am very scared.  Aside from my operation when I was two years old, Ive never had other surgeries before.  Im 26 years old, male,  and healthy.  i dont smoke, dont drink, and dont have any serious or chronic disease..  I have mild asthma but it doesnt really bother me that much..  In the past, I was into cycling, swimming, and working out in the gym...  But im still worried.. I hope you can assure me in some way.. Thank you very much...

Answer
If you are healthy, don't smoke, etc. the risks from general anesthesia are vanishingly small. The risk of major complications is probably 1 in 500,000 or more. Anesthesia has improved tremendously since 1985 and is, in fact, one of the safest medical specialties around. Anesthesiologists, unlike other specialties, tracks all major complications and stores them in a database for researchers to use to improve our safety reecord. You have nothing to worry about from an anesthetic standpoint.

Hope this helps,


Ronald Levy, MD
Professor of Anesthesiology
UTMB-Galveston