Intraoperative Awareness in a Regional Medical System

• DOI: 10.1097/00000542-200702000-00014
• Publication Date: 2007-01-22T09:03:02Z
• Authors: Richard J. Pollard; Joseph P. Coyle; Richard L. Gilbert; Janet E. Beck
• Keywords: Intraoperative Awareness; Incident report; Near miss

Intraoperative awareness in patients undergoing general anesthesia is an infrequent but well-described adverse outcome. The reported incidence of this phenomenon between 0.1% and 0.9%.With institutional review board approval, the authors reviewed continuous quality improvement data from 3 yr (2002-2004) at locations where physician group provided anesthesia. Board-certified anesthesiologists supervising certified registered nurse anesthetists care team model practice delivered all anesthetics. Brain function monitors were not used operating room setting. Patients interviewed twice during a 48-h postoperative period and, as part that process, underwent modified Brice interview to determine intraoperative awareness. All cases met criteria for examined by committee modify anesthetic included study.Data 211,842 considered. Of these, process followed up 177,468 (83.1%). Cases study if patient was younger than 18 yr, did have anesthetic, or had terminal event hospital course. By these criteria, total 87,361 risk Six instances recall.The large sample regional medical center 0.0068%, 1 per 14,560 patients, substantially less recent literature.