Question and Answer Forum

Anesthesia and CFS

By David S. Bell, MD, FAAP

Published in Lyndonville News, September 2001

Question:

Dear Dr. Bell

We are frequently asked for anesthesia recommendations. Since anesthesia meds change so often, do you have some current recommendations you would like to offer?

Thanks much,
Bonnie Gorman

Answer:

Dear Bonnie,

Patients with CFS struggle with anesthesia. If a CFS patient has surgery, there is the additional burden of recovering from the surgery on top of feeling lousy to start with. While this is an over-simplification, I think the concept works.

Years ago, I had expected CFS patients to be dropping like flies during surgery, surgeons not understanding the illness, anesthesiologists using the wrong anesthesia and an already fragile state to begin with. But it hasn¹t happened. (If it had happened, doctors would have taken CFS more seriously)

So, general advice for a patient with CFS would be, Don’t have surgery if you don’t need it, but if you have to have it, have it and expect to feel even more lousy for a while afterwards. Somehow this statement does not seem very elegant.

There has been concern that the type of anesthesia is critical. My personal feeling on this is that the type is not so important, but the amount of fluid support is going to determine how lousy you feel afterward. I have heard some patients say that with an extra liter of saline they seemed to recover quite well. So I would advise the anesthesiologist not to be stingy with the saline unless there were clear indications to cut back on fluids. This area could be studied if there were interest among physicians, but so far it has not been. I imagine every CFS specialist will have his or her own opinion on this question.

Thanks for writing,

Dr. Bell

Return to the Q & A Page

Return to the Lyndonville News Archive

Return to the CFS Page

Home	News	Forum	Contribute	Store	Articles	Links	Help
The Pediatric Network website and forum are run by Mary Robinson and Rebecca Moore. When you follow links on our site to Amazon.com and make purchases, a portion of the sales cost supports our work. Visit our store for shopping suggestions:  gifts for kids or parents, tools for adapting activities, medical and special education books, coping strategies, and more.

Disclaimer: The views in this website and forum are the feelings and opinions of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect all of the current theories that are being explored and published. Ask your doctor or other health care provider about all medical information that you consider applying to your situation, including the information you read in our website and forum. We take no responsibility for the decisions you or your family members make about medical care. It is up to you to verify that the information you read is correct and applies to your unique situation.