Studies have shown that anesthesia regularly evokes more fear and anxiety for patients than the surgery for which it is being given. Yet despite this fact, most patients meet with their anesthesiologist for only about five minutes before surgery. The resulting unanswered questions and unresolved anxieties about anesthesia can unnecessarily weaken a patient both as he enters the operating room and in his recovery. Putting control back in the hands of the patient, The Anesthesia Fact Book reveals how various kinds of anesthesia work, answers the most common questions and concerns about the process, and provides information and strategies for achieving the safest, most comfortable, and least stressful anesthesia and surgery possible.