[pavulon]

Sorry for the thread drift here but...I see more and more surgeons who will offer up anesthetics without regard for anyone or anything but themselves. As Angela illustrates, a lot of surgeries do not require the anesthetic a surgeon offers. Surgeons offering to "knock you out" (general anesthesia) for everything may be doing so for a number of reasons (often money, control and/or to mask their behavior or skills in surgery and often times because they own the surgery center and options can take some time...back to money).

You are the patient, the risks and benefits are yours and you need to ask about all of your options. An amazing number of surgeries can be well accomplished under a number of anesthetics. For example, almost every surgery on a limb can be done with a nerve block, hernia repairs can have several options, some neuro-surgery may require patients to respond to commands. If patients can cooperate, they frequently have options with advantages that aren't obvious unless offered...not always but frequently enough to mention it here.