Typically, general anesthesia ensures that you are both unconscious and paralyzed during surgery.
Anesthesia awareness happens when you become aware of your surroundings during the procedure.
Types of Anesthesia Awareness
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The sedative does not work, resulting in anesthesia awareness.
This key in of anesthesia awareness is typically the most traumatic for patients.
They may experience all of the pain and terror of having surgery without anesthesia.
The paralytic and sedatives do not work, resulting in anesthesia awareness.
Additional medication is given to sedate and paralyze the patient.
The paralytic does not work, resulting in movement during surgery.
The procedure or condition requires reduced anesthesia, resulting in more awareness than is ideal.
In those cases, smaller doses of anesthesia are used to prevent medical complications.
Reduced anesthesia can cause some patients to have some awareness during the surgery.
A BIS monitor is used to track your brain activity.
A sensor is placed on your forehead and assigns a number to your level of brain activity.
Sometimes patients who experience anesthesia awareness can be disturbed by the experience and may experience nightmares and flashbacks.
More severe cases can result in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
American Association of Nurse Anesthetists.Anesthetic awareness fact sheet.
Sandhu K, Dash H.Awareness during anaesthesia.Indian J Anaesth.
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American Society of Anesthesiologists.Anesthesia awareness (waking up) during surgery.
Intraoperative Awareness Under General Anesthesia Pamphlet.
American Society of Anesthesiologists.
