Anesthesia is a specialty dedicated to the relief of pain and total care of the surgical patient before, during, and after surgery. The anesthesia care team is responsible for management and anesthetic care of the patient throughout the duration of surgery. They must carefully match the anesthetic needs of each patient to that patient’s medical condition, responses to anesthesia, and the requirements of the surgery.

All operations and all anesthetics have some risks, and they are dependant upon many factors including type of surgery and the medical condition of the patient. Fortunately, adverse events are rare. Your anesthesia provider takes precautions to prevent an accident from occurring just as you do when driving a car or crossing a street. Complications from anesthesia have declined dramatically over the past 25 years as education and technology have improved.  In just the past decade, estimates for the number of deaths attributed to anesthesia have dropped 25-fold from 1 in 10,000 anesthetics to 1 in 250,000.  All this has occurred during the time when the youngest of premature infants in neonatal units survives intricate, lifesaving procedures and 100-year-old patients undergo and recover from major surgeries that were once thought to be impossible.

The specific risks of anesthesia vary with the particular procedure and the condition of the patient. You should ask your anesthesia provider about any risks that may be associated with your anesthesia.

Anesthesia is a vast field. It takes many forms and is administered by several different groups of health professionals in a variety of clinical settings. These health professionals work at times together and at times independently based on their level of training and certification to provide anesthesia care to patients in need.

Anesthesiologists are medical doctors (MD’s, or DO’s) who, when Board Certified, represent the foremost authority on the field and practice of Anesthesia. Being physicians allows Anesthesiologists to wield a comprehensive understanding of human disease states. This knowledge allows them to be uniquely qualified to manage not only anesthesia but the medical conditions patients often bring with them. Patients can take comfort in knowing that they are under a doctor’s care while anesthetized. Anesthesiologists are licensed to practice anesthesia independently in all clincical settings across the entire country. At the end of their general anesthesia training Anesthesiologists are able to, although not required to, undergo additional training in certain subspecialties of the field. These “fellowships” include but are not limited to Critical Care, Cardiac, Pediatric, Obstetrical, Regional, Ambulatory, and Chronic Pain specialties. These fellowship trained Anesthesiologists are most often found at academic hospital centers where complicated cases of their respective fellowship as well as research opportunities are more common. GBAA is proud to share that all of its Anesthesiologists are Board Certified, and several are fellowship trained. Those with fellowship training are able to ensure that their respective area of Anesthesia focus is practiced at the highest level by the entire group.

Anesthetists (CRNA’s) are advanced practice Registered Nurses, Masters and PhD, who have undergone specialty training in the field of anesthesia. They have a comprehensive understanding of the field of anesthesia but do not possess traditional medical school training. CRNA’s do have extensive clinical experience stemming from their nursing training, work with critically ill patients in the intensive care unit, and their life experience as practicing CRNA’s. CRNA’s are licensed to practice independently in the state of Wisconsin. This is not true of all states in the country. Several states require that CRNA’s work under the direct supervision of a medical doctor such as an Anesthesiologist. At GBAA we follow a Direct Supervision model with our CRNA team. We at GBAA believe our unique perspectives on the field of anesthesia are complementary and work best when Anesthesiologists and Anesthetists work together.   

Anesthesia Assistants are a relatively new addition to the anesthesia specific health professional group. They represent Physician Assistants, PA’s,  specialty trained in the field of anesthesia. They are trained to perform all the same tasks as CRNA’s. At this time they are only licensed to practice under the direct supervision of a medical doctor such as an Anesthesiologist.

Sedation Nurses are Registered Nurses who have taken a course on clinical sedation. They are able to give a limited number of sedative and pain medications within a specific dosing range under the direct supervision of a medical doctor. While an Anesthesiologist would qualify, most sedation nurses typically work under the supervision of the medical provider doing the procedure. Anesthesiologists are rarely involved or present. Sedation nurses are ONLY licensed to proved light, moderate, and deep sedation. NOTE that patients who are sedated are always breathing on their own. Sedated patients are NOT anesthetized and are NOT unconscious. Patients who are sedated often talk and move during their proedures. This is normal. Sedation medications impair memory and MOST patients have very little if any recollection. Sedation nurses are not licensed to render a patient unconscious and they are not able to provide any other forms of anesthesia such as general anesthesia or spinal anesthesia.