Anesthesia awareness is rare, 1,2 but the incidence may approach 1% in patients at high risk. 3–5 Anesthesia awareness can lead to anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. 6 The Joint Commission on ...

The Ohio Patient Safety Institute provides a free, downloadable sample anesthesia awareness policy. The four-page example policy is intended to help address unintended intraoperative awareness during ...

Patients are more likely to experience unintended intraoperative awareness under general anesthesia with the bispectral index protocol than the end-tidal anesthetic-agent concentration, according to a ...

American Society of Anesthesiologists President John Zerwas, MD, wrote a letter to the editor about intraoperative awareness while under anesthesia that was published in the April issue of The ...

The bispectral index monitor places a sensor on a patient’s forehead that monitors brain activity while under anesthesia. (Washington University Department of Anesthesiology) A widespread method used ...

A medical accreditation group Tuesday urged hospitals nationwide to take steps to prevent “anesthesia awareness” — instances in which patients wake up during surgery and sometimes feel excruciating ...

One or two people out of 1,000 going into surgery can experience anesthesia awareness. It’s a brief moment when a person under anesthesia gains consciousness and can recall hearing conversations or ...

Research now shows that patients dream under anesthesia and report their dreams as uplifting, leading to more positive ...

What happens in the brain when our conscious awareness fades during general anesthesia and normal sleep? Scientists studied this question with novel experimental designs and functional brain imaging.