Is anesthesia safe? Anesthesia is safer today than ever before. In the 1940s, anesthesia-related mortality was estimated at 1 in 1,500 cases. Thanks to decades of advancement — including better training, monitoring (like pulse oximetry and capnography), safer drugs, and protocols — the risk has dropped dramatically to about 1 in 200,000 to 300,000. That’s a >95% reduction in anesthesia-related deaths. For healthy patients undergoing routine procedures, the risk is even lower. Modern anesthesia i