Anaesthesia and risk

Patient Information Forum (PIF)

The patient information produced by the College is certified by the PIF Trusted Information Creator Kitemark accreditation scheme run by the Patient Information Forum (PIF) for measuring the quality of health information.

More information is available here.

Anaesthetic techniques and equipment have greatly improved over the last 60 years, as has the training and safety equipment to protect you.

If you are in good health modern anaesthetics are really very safe. All procedures, though, have some risks. Our risk resources are designed to look at the main risks of anaesthesia.

Patient with mask

Risks associated with general anaesthesia
Everyone is different; it is impossible to know who will have a side effect or risk. These numbers are averages from research studies. The people in the studies usually had routine surgery, were a healthy weight and did not have specific health conditions.
Regional anaesthesia (spinal)

Risks associated with regional anaesthesia
Browse our leaflets detailing specific risks associated with regional anaesthesia, including side effects or complications that could occur.
Child with doctor

Common events & risks for children & young people
This shows some of the common events and risks that healthy children and young people of normal weight face when having a general anaesthetic (GA) for routine surgery.