###Human: Is it necessary to shave beard before a general anesthesia? ###Assistant: Hi. That is worth a concern for both for your anesthesiologist and you too. Let me elaborate it to you. General anesthesia involves making a person unconscious and making him totally relaxed by giving a medication called muscle relaxant. With unconsciousness and muscle relaxation, a person cannot breathe by himself under general anesthesia so he has to be administered oxygen with help of a bag and mask ventilation supplying positive airway pressure so that his lungs expand during controlled inspiration and relax during passive expiration. Hence this procedure requires a good mask fit on your face so that your anesthesiologist is able to ventilate your lungs with life-sustaining oxygen. Also as I read in your history you are weighing 97.52 kg with a BMI of 41.99. You are considerably overweight which means you would require more concentration of oxygen during general anesthesia. So an overweight patient with a bushy beard is always a challenge for an anesthesiologist. To achieve a good mask fit in such a patient is always difficult in order to provide oxygen and other inhalational anesthetic agents effectively. So, it is not that hygiene is a concern but it is a safe administration of general anesthesia a major concern in your case. I would suggest, consult your anesthesiologist for a spinal anesthesia which involves anesthetizing lower half of your body in which bladder tumor surgery can be performed. This would avoid general anesthesia and would also save your beard. For more information consult an anesthesiologist online -->