What is meant by the term intraoperative awareness?
Intraoperative awareness is defined by both consciousness and explicit memory of surgical events. It occurs in 1 or 2 of every 1,000 surgical cases, but incidence varies with the patient population, methodology used to study awareness, and time frame of the study.
What causes intraoperative awareness?
Causes of awareness Despite the dramatic improvements in the quality of today’s anesthesia care, awareness during general anesthesia can still occur for a variety of reasons. Common causes of anesthesia awareness are inadequate anesthesia and equipment failure or misuse.
How common is intraoperative awareness?
Intraoperative awareness, which is the unexpected recall of events that occur during anesthesia by patients who receive general anesthesia, occurs in up to 1 to 2 per 1000 patients. Most patients do not experience pain but, rather, have vague recall of auditory events or dreaming.
What are the risk factors for increased intraoperative awareness?
Patients at increased risk for intraoperative awareness include those with a history of substance use or abuse (eg opioids, benzodiazepines, cocaine) and chronic pain patients using high doses of opioids.
What do you do during anesthesia awareness?
To reduce your risk of experiencing awareness during general anesthesia, it is important to tell your physician anesthesiologist as much information about your health as possible, including the following: Previous problems with anesthesia, including a history of being aware during surgery.
Which type of surgical patient is at risk for being aware under anesthesia?
Risk factors of intraoperative awareness These are mainly cardiothoracic operations, surgeries to multitrauma patients and generally emergency cases, cesarean sections and operations on ASA 4 or 5 patients according to ASA (American Society of Anesthesiologists) categorization3.
What are the side effects of anesthesia?
You may experience common side effects such as:
- Nausea.
- Vomiting.
- Dry mouth.
- Sore throat.
- Muscle aches.
- Itching.
- Shivering.
- Sleepiness.
What is intraoperative awareness?
Intraoperative awareness is defined by both consciousness and explicit memory of surgical events. It occurs in 1 or 2 of every 1,000 surgical cases, but incidence varies with the patient population, methodology used to study awareness, and time frame of the study.
How is the experience of intraoperative events inferred from patient responses?
The experience of intraoperative events may be inferred when a patient responds appropriately to a specific command. 139,140 However, failure to respond to a command does not guarantee unconsciousness.
What are surgical and Anesthetic risk factors for intraoperative awareness?
Surgical and anesthetic risk factors for intraoperative awareness include cardiac surgery, cesarean section, trauma surgery, emergency surgery, the use of muscle relaxants with reduced anesthetic dosage, and the use of nitrous oxide/opioid anesthetics.
Can anesthetic state transitions predict intraoperative awareness?
Our further understanding of anesthetic state transitions may one day critically inform the prevention of intraoperative awareness, both in terms of monitoring and anesthetic delivery. Intraoperative awareness is defined by both consciousness and explicit memory of surgical events.