Wierd Question - Fake Nails, Remove Or Keep?

[MendyB 8]

Being a surgical technologist, this is one of the most argued topics. Anesthesiologist seems to think polished fake nails interfers with the pulse ox readings. Some polish and make ups have metals in them that can cause burns or problems for the patient during surgery. There are alot of electricity, flammable material and anesthesia gases that could cause reactions so it is always best to sway on the side of caution. Clear nails are recommended on the index or middle finger. Fakes nails harbor high levels of bacteria so having no polish on these fingers just stays with guidelines of patients safety

[ElizabethAnne 40]

My nails are my own but painted. During my pre-op anesthetic appt, the nurse thought I had acrylic nails and said they were fine, but she cautioned me about painting them dark. I had on a hot pink color that day, which was more of a bright pink than a dark pink. The list she gave me that day also said "no dark nail polish." "Dark" didn't seem very well defined, and I didn't want to chance it, so the next time I selected a polish color, I chose a lighter shade of pink, which would hopefully have been fine for my surgery. I ended up postponing my surgery but I believe it would have worked.

Last week, I needed emergency surgery and specifically asked about my nail polish since I was at a different hospital. I had used a gel polish, which is more complicated to remove and wanted to know what I needed to do. I was told that any shade of nail polish is fine, with the exception of black.