Light anesthesia linked with awareness in surgery

	Tweet

While the number of patients who report awareness during surgery general anesthesia is low, there are several factors that appear to increase the risk, according to findings published in the current issue of the journal Anesthesia & Analgesia. Two major risk factors are light anesthesia and a history of awareness.

The number of reported cases of awareness during anesthesia is insufficient to identify and estimate the risks and causes, note Dr. Mohamed M. Ghoneim and colleagues from the University of Iowa, Iowa City. To assemble more information, they reviewed cases reported in the medical literature.

The authors identified 271 subjects with anesthesia awareness and compared them with 19,504 subjects who did not experience awareness. Patients who experienced awareness were more likely to be female, younger and more likely to have cardiac and obstetric procedures.

Patients who experienced awareness received fewer anesthetic drugs, and had more episodes of rapid heart rate and High Blood Pressure during the operation.

Overall, 52 percent of patients who experienced awareness during surgery reported continuing problems related to their experience, such as sleep difficulties and fears about undergoing anesthesia in the future, and 22 percent of the patients had continued psychological symptoms related to their experience.

Ghoneim and colleagues report that 1.6 percent of patients who experienced awareness during their operation had a history of awareness and 4.5 percent had “difficult and prolonged” throat examinations and intubations.

“The most frequent cause of awareness was overly light anesthesia,” they note. Obesity and the use of nitrous oxide did not increase the risk.

The team suggests that the use of neuromuscular blockers should be avoided unless needed, arguing that a non-paralyzed patients is likely to move if inadequately anesthetized, “which alerts the anesthesia provider to deepen the anesthetic and this lessens the incidence of recall.”

SOURCE: Anesthesia & Analgesia, February 2009.

RELATED STORIES:
Surgery for obstructive sleep apnea reduces daytime drowsiness   A red light for surgeries in supermarkets and a green light for better food labelling   Therapy soon after hip surgery improves mobility   Medical society advises on teen cosmetic surgery   Video gaming prepares brain for bigger tasks   Miss Plastic Surgery crowned   More hand-washing won’t curb hospital infections   Risk of blood clots after surgery higher than thought   Anesthesia & Analgesia Sees Jump in Impact Factor   Patients who gave up smoking before surgery had half as many complications afterwards   Former President Clinton set for low-risk surgery   Newer heart surgeons as safe as older hands

Comments

[ + Post Your Own ]

Now you're in the public comment zone. What follows is not Armenian Medical Network's stuff; it comes from other people and we don't vouch for it. A reminder: By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement.

There are no comments for this entry yet. [ + Comment here + ]