Every Monday we perform multiple bunion repair procedures at our certified surgical Center here at Foot Surgical Center of Issaquah.  There is always the question from our patients whether or not this is going to be a procedure done under general anesthesia.  We do virtually all of our procedures with local anesthetic combined with IV sedation.  This would be similar to the sedation that you would have during colonoscopy.  The IV sedation allows for the patient to essentially sleep through the procedure, however they are still conscious.  They are still breathing on their own.  With a general anesthetic you are unconscious and require outside help for mechanical ventilation and breathing.  We find that our patients are very comfortable with this because they do not hear or feel anything (or remember anything) during the procedure.  Our patients also recover very quickly from the IV sedation type anesthesia.  Our patient's also appreciate the fact that they do not have to have general anesthetic for these procedures.  Once the procedure is done and the patient "wakes up" then because there is already local anesthetic in the foot, they have no initial postoperative pain.  There are some procedures we can do with local anesthetic only also.  If you have questions about bunion surgery or the anesthesia associated with the procedure please let us know.  We would be happy to schedule a consultation with either Dr. Brandon Nelson or Dr. Timothy Young (myself).  For the vast majority of these procedures we work together as a team to perform the bunion surgery.  Our anesthesia services for our certified surgery Center are provided by Evergreen Anesthesia.