“Do they put you to sleep for hand surgery?”

Normally, no.

Many hand surgeons will surgery with use of local anesthesia only. This is know as WALANT, which stands for Wide Awake Local and No Tourniquet. There are some instance where a tourniquet is used with local or local plus some sedation. Sedation may mean you are awake or in a twilight sleep depending upon how much medication is given by anesthesia. Other times, hand surgeons will have an anesthesiologist do an axillary or supraclavicular block and numb the whole arm for surgery, with some sedation or, at times, more sedations. There are some operations for which one needs general anesthesia. Much of what is done depends upon the operation, the surgeon, and the patient. It is part of the conversation to be had when surgery is discussed and is part of the medical decision making process that your hand surgeon takes time to counsel you about, as part of a discussion regarding surgical treatment. If you wish to read an example of carpal tunnel under local only, see: https://www.findatopdoc.com/Expert/3612593-Jeffrey-C-Wint/Carpal-Tunnel-Surgery

Usually not. Depends on the amount of surgery to be done. Most upper extremity surgeries can be performed with an anesthetic nerve block of just the arm and not need to have the patient receive a general anesthetic.

Jeffrey R. Carlson, MD

Hand surgery can be done under general anesthesia, regional anesthesia (put arm to sleep), or local anesthesia (numb the area of surgery). Which anesthesia is appropriate or can/cannot be used depends on what surgery you are talking about.

It depends on the surgery being done. If an extensive reconstructive of massive trauma, the surgeon might elect to use general anesthesia (put you to sleep). If it's something less complicated such as carpal tunnel release or trigger finger, he/she might elect to do a block of the extremity with you sedated, but awake.

It depends on the type of surgery involved. Most of the time the procedures can be done using local anesthetic and IV sedation provided by the anesthesiologist.

Not necessarily. Most of the time, they don't.

This is something you should discuss with your surgeon. That being said, most hand surgeries can be done under either local anesthesia, with or without IV sedation, or under a regional anesthetic block, in which case an injection is given in the region of the shoulder, to numb the nerves in the hand.