ANESTHESIOLOGIST is a physician who administers and manages anesthesia given during a surgical procedure.  They are also responsible for treating any medical problems that might arise during surgery, are further responsible for managing, and treating changes of your breathing, heart rate and blood pressure, before and after surgery.  Depending on the type of surgery and your medical condition, you may receive one of the following various forms of anesthesia, which is medicine, given for the relief of pain sensation:

Local anesthesia is medicine given to a patient to temporarily stop the sense of pain in a certain area of the body.  A Patient remains conscious.

Regional anesthesia is numbing of only a portion of the body that is being operated on by an injection of local anesthetic given in the nerves.  There are several forms of regional anesthesia such as:

• Spinal anesthetic is often used for lower abdominal, pelvic, rectal, or lower extremity surgery.
• Epidural anesthetic is similar to a spinal anesthetic and is used for surgery of the lower limbs and during labor and childbirth.

General anesthesia is a medicine that is either inhaled through a breathing mask or tube, or administered through an intravenous line, causing the patient to be unconscious during surgery.