Services We Provide
Yarra Anaesthetics has a track record of providing quality and comprehensive healthcare services throughout Melbourne. We believe in keeping our community healthy, and we are committed to exceeding the expectations of our patients and surgeons. Let us provide you with the personalized care you deserve.
For Patients
Keep yourself and your loved ones healthy! Our friendly and experienced anaesthetists will make sure you feel well-informed and prepared for your operation. Our specialist consultants will inform you about pre-operative fasting, choice of anaesthesia and post operative management. Read below for further details and learn about what you can do to prepare for your anaesthetic. If you have any further querries, please contact us.
For Surgeons
Our anaesthetic team is here is guide your patients and their families every step of the way throughout their anaesthetic journey. We are committed to a reliable, comprehensive and quality service to you, to help start, grow and maintain your practice. Whether you need an anaesthetist for your elective lists, out of hours lists, adhoc lists and emergency services, we are here to help. We understand your requirements are often unique to your specialty and areas of expertise, and endeavour to optimise and individualise our anaesthetic to meet the demands.
We aim to offer cover for our anaesthetists whilst on leave, with the aim of leaving very minimal interruption to your operating schedule.
We offer preoperative consultations and optimisation in complex patients at your request, and extend our care into the post operative period. We look forward to hearing from you.
Preoperative Fasting
Before your anaesthetic, it is a requirement that you fast (ie. do not eat or drink). For the majority of cases and patients, this would mean no eating and drinking particulate (cloudy) fluids for 6 hours. Clear fluids (such as water up to 400ml) can be consumed up to 2 hours prior to the anaesthetic. This is intended to decrease the risk of perioperative regurgitation and pulmonary aspiration of stomach contents during general anaesthesia or sedation.
However, if you are at increased risk of perioperative regurgitation or vomiting, your anaesthetist may exercise discretion and may vary your fasting time to reduce your risk of aspiration. High risk groups may include: patients having emergency surgery, patients with delayed gastric emptying/ oesophageal motility disorder, obstetric patients or bariatric patients.
Prescribed medications may be taken with a sip of water less than 2 hours prior to anaesthesia unless otherwise directed.
Anaesthesia Types
An anaesthetic can either be:
General Anaesthetic
Regional Anaesthetic
Combination Anaesthetic (Regional Anaesthetic with sedation, Regional Anaesthetic with General Anaesthetic)
Sedation.
Your anaesthetist will discuss with you the most appropriate anaesthetic type specific for you and specific to your procedure. The most common type is a General Anaesthetic. This is when you will be put into a medication induced state of unconsciousness. You will be thoroughly monitored by your anaesthetist for the entire duration whilst you're unconscious. The anaesthetist will breath for you and at the same time, maintain multiple other vital functions such as your circulation. Your anaesthetist will be with you the whole time during your surgery to help avert or manage potential complications that shall arise (such as bleeding, sepsis, allergy reactions).
Modern anaesthesia is highly focused on safety, achieved with high quality training of our anaesthetists and the use of powerful equipments. Despite this, there are risks of anaesthesia, albeit the incidence being low. These may include:
common minor risks - sore throat, perioral abrasions, dental damage especially in high risk patients (ie. obese patients, patients with poor dental quality)
rare serious risks - anaphylaxis, aspiration pneumonia, awareness, cardiac complications (heart attacks, heart failure, arrythmias), Respiratory complications and death.
Post operative Care
Once your operation is completed, your anaesthetist will wake you up from your anaesthetic and escort you safely to the recovery room. Your anaesthetist will continue to look after your vital functions, and manage your post operative pain. If you are going home, your anaesthetist will have a plan for post operative pain relief. You may be discharged on:
simple analgesics - panadol or NSAIDS (ibuprofen, celecoxib etc). It is important that NSAIDS be consumed with food.
Strong analgesics (panadeine forte, tramadol, tapentadol, endone) - it is important that you don't drive or consume alcohol whilst taking these medications.
What I can do before my Anaesthetic?
Help us keep you safe during your surgery by telling us about the following
Medication
It is vitally important your anaesthetist be informed that your are taking medications. Some medications may need to be stopped at a certain time before your operation, whilst others are vitally important to continue. Some examples are:
Blood thinners:
Coumadin - warfarin
Clopidogrel/Prasagrel - Plavix
Aspirin
Clexane
Heparin
Dabigatran - Pradaxa
Apixaban - Eliquis
Rivaroxaban - Xarelto
Ticagrelor - Brilinta
Diabetes medications - in particular:
dapagliflozin - Forxiga, Xigduo XR, Qtern
empaggliflozin - Jardiance, Jardiamet, Glyxambi
ertugliflozin - steglatro, segluomet
Any prescriptive medications including patches and creams
Over the counter medications
Dietary supplements, such as herbs, vitamins, minerals or natural remedies
Recreational drugs
Smoking and Alcohol
Heavy alcohol consumption can affect your perioperative outcome (bleeding, infections, heart problems and longer hospital stay). It is important you tell your anaesthetist how much you drink to help us plan your care.
If you are a heavy drinker and you stop drinking suddenly, it can cause seizures, delirium, and death. If we know you are at risk of these complications, we can plan your anaesthetic and sometimes prescribe medication to help keep them from happening.
If you're a moderate drinker, try to cut down on your consumption once your surgery is planned. If you develop symptoms of withdrawal (headache,nausea, agitation and anxiety), please consult your GP.
Smoking - we advise that you stop smoking.
Diabetes, Cardiac disease and Obstructive sleep Apnoea
Diabetes - good diabetes control can improve your recovery. It is important that your diabetes control is well optimised before your anaesthetic and surgery to help decrease your risk of post operative wound infection and perioperative diabetes complications.
Cardiac Disease - it is important for your anaesthetist to know if you have a Permanent Pacemaker (PPM), Defibrillator, prosthetic heart valves or coronary artery stent. It is important that your cardiac conditions are well optimised before your anaesthetic, to decrease your risk of perioperative cardiac complications.
OSA - if you have sleep apnoea, your airway can become completely blocked during sleep, which can cause serious problems during and after surgery. Tell your anaesthetist so we can plan your anaesthetic drugs, and perioperative care for appropriate monitoring. If you require a CPAP mask to sleep, please bring your CPAP mask into hospital if you are staying overnight.
