Eli5 Why shouldn’t I drink alcohol before surgery?
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Alcohol is a vasodilator, basically all your blood vessels are lined with tissue that contracts or expands as needed to move blood to where it needs to go. When you exercise your blood vessels dilate to let more blood move around to get oxygen to where it needs to be, that dilation allows more blood closer to the surface of your skin which is why you turn red when you’re exercising. And when you’re really cold your blood vessels in your extremities (like your fingers and toes) contract and don’t let very much blood in as a self-protective measure to keep your core body temperature warmer by not letting the blood go to your limbs and get cold. Alcohol forces your blood vessels to dilate (and is why some people get red-faced when drunk) and this is a bad thing when you’re going to get cut open and don’t want to lose a lot of blood.
Plus if you’ve had something to drink recently before being anesthetized you might vomit and aspirate (breathe in) that vomit which is why they tell you not to eat for hours and hours before surgery.
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