My Mom (age 62) is going to have her right kidney removed because of a possibly cancerous mass less than 7cm, but near the vein . This will be the second attempt because last month when she was about to go under general anesthesia her O2 sats dropped too low and the docs cancelled the surgery. They admitted her and did tests over 6 days. The next step is to do the surgery but under a medically induced coma . We are concerned about her being in a coma and want to know if this is a common practice for kidney removal. I have seen a lot of information about induced comas for brain trauma, but nothing for kidney surgery. Is this necessary? Mom does have asthma and high BP but her health is fine otherwise. Thanks for your help.
Dear Madam/ Sir, welcome to Chat Doctor. Surgeries are usually done either under local anesthesia, regional anesthesia or general anesthesia. I suspect you mom has been advised the last option (which is what you refer to as induced coma) which is the norm. Nowadays kidney removal is done through key-hole surgery (laparoscopy). This is minimally invasive and recovery is quick but patient still needs to undergo the procedure under general anesthesia. I am sure the anesthetic will do what is necessary before putting your mom to sleep. Best wishes