Surgical Care

Questions to Ask Before Surgery

If your surgery is not an emergency, you have time to ask your physician questions. The following questions were formulated by the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR), in partnership with the American Medical Association and the American Association of Health Plans:

Ask your surgeon to explain the surgical procedure.
Ask your surgeon what the purpose is of the procedure. Some surgeries are performed to relieve pain or reduce a symptom, others are performed to diagnose a problem.
Are there alternatives to surgery? Sometimes other nonsurgical treatments, such as diet change or certain exercises, may be an alternative to surgery.
Ask your surgeon what you will gain by having the operation.
Ask your surgeon about the possible complications and side effects of the operation.
Ask your surgeon what you will gain -- or lose -- by not having the operation now.
You can ask your surgeon how many surgeries he or she has performed and what complications he or she has encountered with this procedure.
Find out where your operation will be performed. (Some operations have higher success rates depending upon the hospital's frequency of performing the procedure.)
Ask what kind of anesthesia will be used for the procedure.
Ask your surgeon how you might feel after surgery and what you will be able to do or not do the first few days, weeks or months after surgery.

This page was last updated on: November 8, 2007.

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