Intraoperative Awareness during General Anesthesia: Experience in 200 Patients in “185’s Hospital for Emergency Surgeries and Burn”. (An Observational Questionnaire-based Study)

BACKGROUND: General anesthesia (GA) is a complex state of hypnosis, amnesia, and suppression of stress response to stimuli and production of a quiet surgical field. Awareness under GA considered as unexpected and undesirable complication which can be source of pain and torture for many individuals after surgery.  AIM: The aim of the study was to evaluate the incidence of intraoperative awareness during general anesthesia in emergency operations using Brice questionnaire.  METHODS: Two hundred patients were included and undergone emergency operations under GA at Cairo University’s Hospitals. Intravenous induction then inhalational maintenance of anesthesia with muscle relaxant was commenced, basic vital signs were monitored and kept within normal range. Depth of anesthesia was manipulated and kept adequate intraoperatively according to patient’s clinical status. At the end of surgery, patients were fully reversed and extubated fully awake then transferred to the recovery room, then data were collected.  RESULTS: Data analysis showed 110 (55%) men and 90 (45%) women. Two hours postoperatively, one patient (0.5%) reported intraoperative awareness, while 199 patients (99.5%) remembered nothing intraoperatively.  CONCLUSION: The incidence of intraoperative awareness in our emergency hospital is relatively fair and clinical evaluation of anesthesia depth is an effective measure to detect and prevents intraoperative awareness.