Most thyroid operations are performed under general anesthesia, which means you will be totally asleep during the procedure and a plastic tube will be placed in your windpipe (trachea) to help you breathe.
However, some thyroid operations are performed under “monitored anesthesia care” with a “cervical block”. This means the anesthesiologist will administer sedation medication through an IV (catheter in a vein) to make you relaxed, and the surgeon will inject numbing local anesthetic medication into the skin around your neck. Some surgeons routinely perform thyroid surgery in this way, while other thyroid surgeons prefer to use general anesthesia unless it is too risky (for example, if the patient has severe heart or lung disease). Ask your thyroid surgeon what kind of anesthesia will be used for your operation.
For more information go endocrinediseases.org:
http://endocrinediseases.org/thyroid/surgery_anesthetic.shtml
Continue Learning about Anesthesia for Surgical Procedures
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