Learn Swedish: Vi mäter blodtrycket innan kirurgen ger dig narkosen. - We measure the blood pressure before the surgeon gives you the anesthesia.

According to formal Swedish grammar rules, innan is a conjunction, meaning it must introduce a full clause with a subject and a verb. Here, it introduces the clause kirurgen ger dig narkosen. The word före is a preposition and should only be placed directly before a noun phrase, such as före operationen. While you will hear native speakers use innan as a preposition in everyday speech, keeping them separate is recommended for formal writing at the B2 level.

Why do blodtrycket and narkosen take the definite form here? English usually just says blood pressure or anesthesia in this context.

Swedish frequently uses the definite form for nouns related to the body, health, or medical procedures when the context makes it clear whose body or which procedure is involved. Since this happens at a specific medical appointment, it is not just general blood pressure or anesthesia, but rather the specific ones relating to the patient.

Why is the word order kirurgen ger and not ger kirurgen after innan?

Because innan is a subjunction that starts a subordinate clause. The standard word order for a subordinate clause is strictly subject followed by verb. You would only invert the verb and subject if you put this entire subordinate clause at the very beginning of the sentence, for example: Innan kirurgen ger dig narkosen, mäter vi blodtrycket.

Both mäter and are in the present tense, but this sounds like a future plan. Is that common?