More patients wake up during operations, warn experts
MANY more people may be waking up during operations than previously thought, health experts have warned.
The phenomenon, known as Accidental Awareness during General Anaesthesia (AAGA), is one of the most feared complications for people who are put under general anaesthesia during surgery and patients may experience sensations of choking, suffocation and panic, and even fear they are going to die.
The use of muscle relaxants, which are required for safety during surgery, are likely to mean they are unable to communicate the fact that they are awake to the surgeon so they can only lie there helpless.
A report by the Royal College Anaesthetists last year found about one patient in every 19,000 reports AAGA after being put under general anaesthetic, amounting to nearly 160 patients a year.
But researchers said that figure was based on patients proactively coming forward and reporting their experiences to hospital authorities, indicating that the real number was likely to be as much as 10 times as many.
They also said certain groups of people are more at risk of premature awakening, including pregnant women and patients who are morbidly obese, have certain infections, liver disease, malnutrition or are in the advanced stages of cancer.
Scientists in Denmark carried out a study on 123 patients with BChE deficiency, a rare metabolic disorder, and found 72 per cent of them suffered premature awakening under general anaesthetic.