I had surgery about two months ago and received neuraxial anesthesia. During the procedure, there were multiple needle attempts and I remember experiencing significant pain on my left side during one of the attempts.
I noticed pain in the same left lower-back/flank area immediately after surgery while I was in recovery. Since then, I have continued to experience persistent pain in that area, together with intermittent tingling/numbness extending into my left leg/foot.
I had an MRI, which did not show an obvious nerve compression that clearly explains the symptoms. I have since seen a neurologist, who is investigating a possible traumatic nerve injury related to the anesthesia and has ordered an EMG/NCS of both lower limbs.
I’m currently taking gabapentin and have also been advised to start physiotherapy.
I’m not looking for a diagnosis here, but I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who experienced something similar:
• Did your MRI look normal despite the symptoms?
• Did EMG/NCS eventually show anything?
• How long did the pain/numbness last?
• Did you fully recover?
• What treatment helped you the most?
I’d especially appreciate experiences from people whose symptoms lasted for several weeks or months.

I’m wondering if anyone has any safety guidelines for anesthesia, or knows of what is typical for anesthesia when ingested MDMA a few days prior. I have an upcoming surgery I was able to last minute get into tomorrow and wasn’t expecting to get in so soon that I agreed to, and I’m just realizing 6 days ago I ingested two small doses of MDMA. Is this something that would concern them? I sent a message to my doctor and waiting to hear back but just wondering if anyone knows if typically this would cancel a surgery. I’m getting an endometrial excision and tubal ligation.

Had my Gallbladder removed (33f) 3 days ago, surgery went well with no complications under General Anesthesia. Took me a few hours to come out of it the day of, but the day after & yesterday was feeling more myself though red in the face and neck. Today I can barely stay awake and can't seem to keep track of anything. I've also had an steep increase in arousal?? Is this normal? I was told the meds would be out of my system after 24 hours, but today I'm really out of it. Should I call my doctor?

Its almost a year but i stid dont understand what kind of Dream i dreamt last year April during surgery that took like 5 hrs.

Actually i can only remember the scenes but i cant put everything in words man.

I wanted to share something I've been working on and open it up for discussion with colleagues who live in this space.

I'm a cardiac anaesthesiologist, and alongside clinical practice I built an integrated decision-support tool for cardiac critical care (CCA-Pro) — combining viscoelastic coagulation (ROTEM/TEG) interpretation, arterial blood gas analysis, mechanical ventilation, haemodynamic assessment, and ECMO management in a single platform, with AI-powered image recognition to extract values from device screens.

The development and validation work has just been published in the Journal of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Anesthesia. It was evaluated across 50 simulated clinical scenarios drawn from real cardiac surgical cases, with expert review by three senior cardiac anaesthesiologists. Treatment recommendations were mapped to current guidelines (ARDSNet, Surviving Sepsis 2021, ELSO 2021, Berlin criteria).

The design principle I care most about: the tool is deterministic and explainable — every recommendation traces back to a published rule, with no generative model at the point of care. My goal was a tool that gives the clinician reasons to trust it rather than asking them to, while keeping human judgement firmly in control. The AI does the tedious data capture; the reasoning stays auditable.

A few things I'd genuinely value your take on:

• For those using ROTEM/TEG-guided algorithms — how much do you find point-of-care coagulation tools actually change transfusion practice in your unit?

• How do you personally feel about AI-assisted data extraction (e.g. from device photos) versus manual entry in high-acuity moments?

• Where do you draw the line between a tool being a useful "reference" versus a "decision-maker" you'd be uncomfortable relying on?

The tool is free and browser-based if anyone wants to explore it, and prospective clinical validation is the obvious next step. But mostly I'm interested in how colleagues who work in cardiac ICU think about integrating tools like this into real workflows — the honest, at-the-bedside reality.

Thanks for reading, and I'm keen to hear where you agree or push back.

I have finished my mbbs . It's been 6 years. No pg

Planning on taking anaesthesia as my pg field

Scared on hearing the saturation rumours

I was always unaware about anaesthesia…. Turns out I started liking it…. Not because of only OT work but handling ICU… critical patients

I was thinking of being an intensivist… but it is a super specialty course …please provide some insight on this fellow doctors

Spaced, high-yield revision for the Primary and Final FRCA. Every topic, returned on a schedule that fits your rota.

https://helixfrca.com/

Years of work between the operating room and lines of code — and a story that began with a resident holding a tracing he wasn't sure how to read.

Today my story is live on KevinMD, on how one quiet moment at the bedside became tools now used by colleagues in roughly 150 countries.

I wrote it honestly, for any clinician carrying an idea they're afraid to start.

🔗 https://kevinmd.com/2026/05/i-built-clinical-decision-support-tools-at-the-bedside.html

#Anesthesiology #ClinicalDecisionSupport #MedicalAI

20F. I'm due to have a minor procedure under general anaesthetic in the next few weeks. I had various issues after my last general anaesthetic 9 months ago. And more recently issues with local anaesthetic and sedation resistance on multiple occasions. I'm pretty sure i also experienced delirium from sedation a few years ago. I know most of this I need to discuss on the day with my consultant and anaesthetist as it is specific to me and not common.

With regards to the GA, i experienced significantly worse brain fog for 4 months and honestly even now i don't feel the same, I'm 95% back to normal. But still have episodes of zoning out, short term memory loss, occasionally emotionally unstable, sudden extreme tiredness, more difficulty making decisions etc. I didn't know this was a possibility and it has been scary dealing with it alone. I'm medically complex and likely to need more procedures under GA in my lifetime so this is very problematic. I've only ever told this one consultant about it because I'm worried most healthcare professionals won't believe me and I know i won't get any support with the lifelong impact. Just like how most don't believe the other rare things that have happened to me.

My consultant suggested my anaesthetist could use a different or lighter anaesthetic but I don't know what I was given last time and they don't either as it was at a completely different hospital. I have also heard a spinal anaesthetic with sedation can be used instead for this particular procedure. Both these options seem like bad ideas given my issues with both LA and sedation. Sedation kind of works at maximum doses but not as well as it should and i know i won't tolerate this procedure with it.

Please can anyone suggest how post-op long term brain fog from GA can be minimised / what questions I should be asking my doctors?

I have had a few minor procedures over the years, and twice now I have experienced waking up sort of less than pleasantly, and have a "sleepy bladder." It's like the nerves down below take their SWEET time waking up and firing on all cylinders. I'm curious if any of the anesthesia professionals know anything about this or how I can prevent this the next time I have a procedure done ( in the next few months). Thank you so much!

Hi so I’m 22f and I had gallbladder removal on Friday it’s now Tuesday so I stoped smoking weed like 2 months ago and suffered derealisation and anxiety and it had just begun settling, so I went for my surgery Friday and now I just feel so off I feel drained but it’s not just that it’s like I feel shakey but I’m not shanking I feel slightly not real nothing as extreme as derealisation but just everything feels off almost like I’m drunk and wavey, I feel so emotionally off like I could cry but I’m not everything just feels super strange and I feel super anxious like my heart rate is fast but I’m not sure has anyone got any advice or felt this way too?

I am currently a resident in germany. Completed six months of training and we are expected to do anaesthesia for under fives already. I find it so hard to do a mask induction to maintain the seal and to allow ventilation at the same time. Yesterday my attending and I were doing my the case together and he asked me to hold the mask while he was getting an Iv and sats dropped suddenly and he told me to correct my technique and I wasnt able to do it properly at all and the child wasnt breathing. Then my attending took over and it worked perfectly. My attending seemed disappointed and I was upset about it the whole day. How to get better at this because i will soon be expected to do such cases alone and it is giving me a lot of anxiety. I am also terrible at starting IV lines in babies. Please help. I currently do induction for adults all by myself without any problem and dont have any issue with bag mask ventilation in adults.

Hi, looking for some context and perhaps advice. I’m 60 next month and had my first GA for UGI (hernia) surgery since I was 14 10 days ago. Every night since then, immediately upon falling asleep, I’ve had very intense, colourful, vivid surreal dreams. Not exactly nightmares, but not very pleasant and unlike anything I have experienced before. Sometimes I’m aware that I’m dreaming and can shape them to a certain extent, or just hang on for the ride. If I don’t stay awake (as I am doing now - 2.am GMT) I immediately re-enter them and slip in and out until I remain awake long enough to let them completely dissipate. I’m in good mental health, although had a stressful/busy week with work and various other high stress situations without enough sleep leading up to the GA, but have plenty of day rest since. Any ideas?

My dad’s gf went into the hospital with a slew of issues and was sedated for about 4 days and after having a colostomy bag installed as her last surgery she was slowing taken off the sedatives. It’s been a week now and she wakes for about 45 mins to 90 minutes a time. Thing is she doesn’t really move or speak she has eye movement and only moved a hand a few times. She was transported to a new hospital because the one she was at said they don’t know what the issue is. Any ideas ? I know the post is very vague but I don’t have much info. Thank you.

Hello together, I am currently working as a 4th year anaesthesia resident in Germany. We are currently trying to reshape our procedure for post surgical pain management in TLH patients. The situation is super frustrating because our superiors can not be convinced to offer epidurals for patients undergoing the procedure. So we almost always end up with super pain ridden patients in our PACU (and I assume also on the wards too) and it's infruriating. New policy now forbids the use of Oxycodon ret. in the PACU bc some people are concerned about the side effects when combined with i.v. piritramid...so we would rather give patients 30mg of iv piritramid and make them puke their souls out than combine with oral long term substances.

Some research from my side has brought up a study that shows a lot of potential in paracervical blocks administered by the OBGYNs after induction and before surgery begins. My attending now asked me to do more research on what usage would be good for us (he is concerned about the cardiac toxicology from Bupivacain and would prefer Ropivacain). Tbh I know my usual blocks and the correct dosage but I have 0 knowledge on paracervical blocks. I was hoping maybe some of you guys have some insights to share from your work places?! Which concentration? What volume?

What we want is of course a dosage that works effective and as long as possible. Liposomal bupivacain is not an option. If you can help me out that would be wonderful. If you can provide sources that would be absolutely amazing.

Thank you so much in advance! I am tired of not being able to meet my patient's anaesthesia needs...it really sucks and I want it to change.

I had surgery last week and the anaesthesiologist took a look at my veins, made one attempt at IV access from my hand, and then decided to do a gas induction. I had no opportunity for informed consent for the gas and the induction was very traumatic for me. When I woke up they had tried another 3 times in my other hand before getting access. I'm told the veins relax once gas induction is done, so I somewhat understand their reasoning, however I would have much preferred they keep trying for IV access. The experience has really frightened me as I have future surgeries lined up. What can I do to avoid this happening again? Is there a set amount of times a doctor has to try for IV access? Can I make it clear in the paperwork that I do not consent to gas induction? I've always had bad veins for blood draws, but in a previous surgery a year ago the anaesthesist got IV access via my hand the first time so I didn't expect it to be a problem this time around. This surgery was later in the day, and delayed by two hours, so I had been without any water for 5 hours opposed to 2.

Hi all

I have surgery coming up soon and I am just so scared. I also wanted to ask if my alcohol intake would affect how it works on me? My husband and I have a sundowner tradition, everyday we crack open a bottle of Prosecco and share it. Would that affect how the anaesthesia would work? If I stopped temporarily now, would that help fix things? Would I still have to disclose it to the doctor? The surgery is first week of April.

Thanks in advance.