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The claims of compensation for awareness with recall during general anaesthesia in Finland
Author(s) -
RANTA S.,
RANTA V.,
AROMAA U.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
acta anaesthesiologica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.738
H-Index - 107
eISSN - 1399-6576
pISSN - 0001-5172
DOI - 10.1111/j.1399-6576.1997.tb04698.x
Subject(s) - medicine , recall , anesthesia , general anaesthesia , compensation (psychology) , cognitive psychology , social psychology , psychology
Background: Awareness during anaesthesia has been estimated to occur in 0.2%‐0.4% of patients undergoing general surgery. In Finland, according to the Patient Injury Act, compensation is paid for an injury caused by medical treatment. We have analysed the claims for compensation involving awareness under anaesthesia filed between May, 1987 and December, 1993. Methods: Original claims, hospital notes, and expert advisor's comments as well as the comments of the anaesthesiologist in charge of the anaesthesia, and decisions of the Patient Injury Association, were reviewed. Results: A total of 23 363 claims of patient injury were made during the study period. Of these, 391 considered anaesthetic treatments, and there were four cases of awareness with recall. Conclusion: Claims of compensation for awareness during anaesthesia were surprisingly few, possible reasons of which are discussed. Compensations paid were low in comparison with some other countries.