If you are having an upcoming surgery or other procedure, please check with your ILD pulmonologist to ensure you don't need anesthesia clearance or prophylactic medications to prevent infection. 

With any surgery that requires general anesthesia, individuals with ILD are at increased risk for respiratory complications including respiratory failure that could cause prolonged intubation (insertion of a tube into your lungs to help you breathe in the event that you get very sick and during the procedure and cannot breathe on your own) and a stay in the intensive care unit.

If the procedure requires anesthesia, your pulmonologist may have to communicate with the surgical team to help provide anesthesia guidelines in order to minimize risk of respiratory complications. In some cases, you will be asked to be evaluated in clinic to ensure you are safe to undergo the proposed procedure.

Finally, for surgeries that require hospitalization, it is important to mobilize early as soon as it is safe to do so, in order to prevent deconditioning of muscles and atelectasis (collapse) of your lungs.