Being weighed before general anaesthetic

[Oldtoady]

Ho

had anyone had recent surgery that required a general anaesthetic, and if so we’re you weighed before the op, or just asked to state your weight?

I was weighed

You’re a asked to state your weight and DO NOT LIE

i did once and woke up very weirdly….. I always wondered if they’d under dosed me because my vanity

They wanted to weigh my daughter but she wouldn’t get on the scales, she was distressed and in pain, so I had to tell them and spent the whole op panicking Id got it wrong.

I was weighed. This is one time you really need to be accurate.

It depends a bit, where I work it's standard to weigh (I guess this gives more assurance to the anaesthetist), but it can be done if requested where you aren't told and don't see what it is yourself.

I've had 15 surgeries under GA, and I was weighed before all of them. They need to be accurate, for obvious reasons.

I asked to not be told my weight. They need it to give the correct dose.

When I was weighed at my csection pre op, the woman doing it covered the display so I couldn't see it (history of eating disorders). Would that help?

I had a fairly major op last week and they used the weight from my pre-op assessment two weeks earlier. The nurse asked me if that was still my weight and because I weigh at home I knew it was, give or take an ounce or so.

For my precious op they weighed me again the day of the op. Same ward, different nurse.

DH was weighed at a pre op assessment and his weight taken from that, was about 2 weeks before. He had surgery 4 weeks ago.

I had to stand and turn around in a circle printed on the ground to see if I would fit into a normal sized MRI machine! I did, hurrah. 😅

I was recently sedated heavily for something and had to tell them my weight. 12.5 stone sadly but she wrote 10.5stone!! I managed to see it somehow thank goodness. Would never ever lie about it.

C section and I was weighed.

I thought they did for a serious reason and not just due to boredom so just did it

Surely this is the time they need to be accurate? Nobody cares about your weight they just want the procedure to be safe and go smoothly. What a weird post.

I was always weighed. Saying that prior to one surgery I’d dashed in from work for my pre-op and they weighed me still wearing my steel toe caps and pockets full of about 30 keys. I was terrified they’d overdose me 😆 They didn’t obviously!

Why would you not want to be weighed? If you lie then you may get too little GA or too much GA and not wake up.

I'm having an op on Friday and have been weighed.

They need it to calculate dosages of anaesthesia and pain relief

Is not weird for me. I had a serious eating disorder and being weighed is very distressing for me

You need to have a conversation with the/an anaesthetist in that case about the risk and benefits of an anaesthetic with an inaccurate weight - and decide between yourselves whether that does or doesn't outweigh the risks of not having the surgery you are scheduled for, or, if there are any alternatives such as regional anaesthesia that could be used where an accurate weight may be less critical.

Is it knowing your weight that is destressing? Ask them not to tell you?

You don't have to see your weight. Surely you acknowledge it's the best way to have a successful surgery?

It is quite important to have an accurate height and weight as far as possible for a few reasons. If the anaesthetist is using total intravenous anaesthesia the pumps use weight (and height) to calculate doses. When we can’t get accurate numbers we use best guess. There’s a bit more of an art to anaesthetics than the PPs suggest though and an anaesthetist is there the whole time to make sure it looks like the the customer is asleep and to respond to any changes in physiology. It’s not like someone gets their ‘weight appropriate’ dose of drugs and then we sit there and ignore the signs that it’s not enough or that we’re overdosing them.

other things for which an accurate weight may be relevant include deciding what DVT prevention to use/ deciding on antibiotic doses. Depending on the nature of the operation, weight (as an indicator of possible malnutrition) may also be helpful in predicting the risk of complications which may influence where the best place to be cared for post-op is/ whether nutrition could be optimised pre-/post-op to improve outcome.

most anaesthetists are sensitive to the fact that weight can be a tricky subject for people for very valid reasons. If it helps to not know the numbers is then that’s usually fine, but it really can help your team to look after you well if they do know.

When I didn't know my weight the nurses were absolutely shocked; they said they'd never had a woman who didn't know their own weight (or at least have some idea), only men. That made me really sad.

Weighed. Tell them you don't want to see or know?