Surgery Patients Awake During Procedures

Many surgery patients report that they awake during surgery. They say it feels like being trapped in a corpse, unable to move or scream. Some remember hearing their surgeons talk, and a few recall feeling intense pain.
Each year, as many as 40,000 of the 21 million patients undergoing surgery in the United States may experience inadequate anesthesia, leading to anxiety and even post-traumatic stress disorder if patients regain consciousness, according to the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.
A widely used device that employs brainwaves to help doctors prevent patients from waking up during surgery is no more effective than an older, far less costly technique, researchers said on Wednesday. A study of nearly 2,000 patients reported in The New England Journal of Medicine showed the BIS device, made by Aspect Medical Systems Inc., did not help doctors prevent any more patients from waking up while under inhaled anesthesia.
The researchers concluded that reliance on BIS technology may provide patients and health care practitioners with a false sense of security about the reduction in the risk of anesthesia awareness. They reported that if BIS monitoring were routinely applied to all patients in the United States, the cost of disposable electrodes alone would exceed $360 million annually.