While monitoring your anaesthetic, your anaesthetist keeps a record of your vital signs, such as your heart rate, blood pressure and oxygen saturation. Your anaesthetist also records the time, dose, and route of all drugs and fluids that you are given. A record may also be made of routine and special monitors and equipment, as well as any anaesthetic techniques. As well, your anaesthetist makes a note of any events of importance. These might include, for example, the time when your surgeon made the first incision or other important actions.

Exactly what your anaesthetist records will partly reflects local custom. For example, in Canada the Guidelines to the Practice of Anaesthesia describe the minimum amount of information that should be recorded. Similar guidelines exist in Australia, New Zealand, and other countries. These guidelines state that every patient undergoing general, regional or monitored anaesthesia care should have his or her blood pressure and heart rate measured and recorded at least every five minutes. There is one important exception to this statement, which is contained in the phrase ‘unless clinically impractical’. This phrase applies if your condition is very unstable and your anaesthetist is working hard to save your life - for example, giving you life-saving drugs and intravenous fluids. In that case, your anaesthetist might not be able to record your blood pressure or heart rate at the same time. If so, your anaesthetist would complete the anaesthetic record after the crisis was over and your condition had stabilised.