Medical experts are finding that patients regaining consciousness
during surgery is happening at an astounding rate of 50 to 100 times
a day.
Although these events occur in only 0.1 percent and 0.2 percent
of all surgeries, with 21 million operations performed a year, the
numbers quickly add up.
According to a recent study, while still paralyzed by the drug
and unable to move, patients have reported:
- Hearing operating room conversations (48 percent)
- Feeling like they can't breathe (48 percent)
- Experiencing the pain of surgery (28 percent)
A patient-safety oversight group is attempting to rid this problem
by encouraging hospitals to do more to make sure patients do not
"come to" during an operation.
Suggestions to prevent this problem include closely monitoring
whether a patient's anesthesia is wearing off, requiring hospitals
to build awareness in the operating room and using brain monitors,
which observe brain-wave levels during an operation.
Until scientists discover a way to properly address this issue,
hospitals are urged to inform their patients of the possibility
of waking up during surgery. Further, hospitals have been asked
to question patients immediately following surgery as to whether
or not they woke up during the operation, apologize if it did occur
and refer the patient to counseling as a way to ease the stress.
USA
Today October 6, 2004
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