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Southern Ocean County Hospital would like to thank everyone who e-mailed questions for this edition of Ask-The-Expert and would like to especially thank Dr. Mordechai Bermann for taking part in the program.

November : Anesthesia - What You Need to Know

Thank you very much for your interesting question regarding your upcoming surgery and anesthesia. In order to be able to answer your question accurately, I would need to know EXACTLY what do you mean by “Highly allergic to lidocaine and very sensitive to anesthetics” as you mentioned in your question. Obviously, you had both and survived both. Yes, there are some tests and we need to know which one, if at all, you should have prior to your anesthesia.

For these reasons at SOCH, we instituted the “Pre-operative Visit”. The patient meets with an anesthesiologist about 7-10 days prior to the surgery, and discusses any previous experiences with anesthesia as well as his/her medical history and the best choice for an anesthetic plan is developed.

With knee surgery, you can have either Regional Anesthesia (spinal, epidural) which contains lidocaine, or General Anesthesia which includes the anesthetic agents that you are very sensitive to. Therefore, in my case my advice would be to schedule a pre-operative visit to meet with an anesthesiologist prior to your surgery. Again, thank you for your question and good luck with your surgery.

Dr. Bermann's answers are informational only and should not be used as a diagnosis or for treatment. Please talk to your physician about official diagnosis of your condition and treatment.