Dr Himanshu Jangid
• Privation of senses or Lack of sensory perception
• What is General Anaesthesia ?
• State of unconsciousness or the lack of thought
processing.
• Hypnosis ( unconsciousness)
• Analgesia (decreasing pain)
• Amnesia (preventing recall)
• Impairment of skeletal muscle (preventing movement)
• Physiologic support (maintaining respiratory and
• cardiovascular function, fluid management, electrolyte
• control, and thermoregulation )
• The crux of the difficulty in defining “anesthetic depth” is
that unconsciousness cannot be measured directly.
• What can be measured is response to stimulation.
• The “depth” of anesthesia is determined by
• the stimulus applied,
• the response measured,
• the drug concentration at the site of action that blunts
responsiveness.eg.
• MAC AWAKE
• MAC
• MAC BAR
• Awareness—
• Postoperative recall of events occurring during general
anesthesia
• Amnesic wakefulness—
• Responsiveness during general anesthesia without
postoperative recall
• Dreaming—
• Any experience (excluding awareness) that patients are able
to recall postoperatively that they think occurred during
general anesthesia and that they believe is dreaming
• Explicit memory—
• Conscious recollection of previous experiences
(“awareness” is evidence of explicit memory)
• Implicit memory—
• Changes in performance or behavior that are produced
by previous experiences but without any conscious
recollection of those experiences (“unconscious memory
formation” during general anesthesia)
• is the postoperative recall of sensory perception during
general anaesthesia.
• Rare but serious
• May occur despite apparently sound anaesthetic
management
• Usually not associated with pain.
Stage 1: Conscious awareness with explicit memory
Stage 2: Conscious awareness without explicit memory
Stage 3: Subconscious awareness with implicit memory
Stage 4: No awareness
• “Definite” awareness
• Recall conversations or music that they hear in the OR during the
period of awareness
• “Probable” awareness
• Hearing voices or feeling discomfort asso with intubation or
surgery
• “Near miss” awareness
• More vague and dream-like
• In 1845, Horace Wells
• N2O anesthesia
• Pt moved and cried out
• No recall of his operation
• In 1846, W.T.G. Morton
• Ether anesthesia
• Surgeons considered it a success
• Pt. had been aware, no pain.
• From a pt’s perspective, Well’s anesthetic may
be considered more successful than Morton’s.
• Estimation of the incidence of awareness
• Multiple post anesthetic interviews, usually using a modified Brice
interview
The Modified Brice Interview
• What is the last thing you remember before surgery?
• What is the first thing you remember after surgery?
• Do you remember anything happening during surgery?
• Did you have any dreams during surgery?
• What was the worst thing about your surgery?
• Over all
• 1 or 2 cases out of every 1000 patients (0.2%)
• Obstetric 0.4%
• Cardiac cases 1.1-1.5%
• In children 0.8-1.2%.
• Awareness results from an imbalance between
anesthetic requirement and anesthetic delivery
• Normal Requirement—Low Delivery
• Low Requirement—Very Low Delivery
• High Requirement—Normal Delivery
• Patient related:
• Age
• Sex
• Genetics
• ASA physical status
• Drug resistance or tolerance(substance abuse and chr.
Pain treated with high dose opoids)
• Concurrent medications
• Past history of awareness
• Difficult intubation
• Surgery related
• High Risk Surgeries
• Caesarian section (0.4%)
• Major trauma/Emergency (11-43%)
• Cardiac surgery (1.1-1.5%)
• Anaesthesia related
• Reduced anesthetic doses in presence of paralysis
• Rapid sequence induction
• total intravenous anaesthesia.
• Nitrous Opioid anesthesia
• Pharmacological masking of signs of inadequate depth of
anaesthesia-
• Use of muscle relaxants
• Machine malfunction or misuse resulting in an
inadequate delivery of anaesthesia:
• Drug administration errors
• Mis-labeled drug syringes
• Empty vaporizers
• Leaky gas delivery circuits
• Dysfunctional or misused drug infusion pumps
• Intravenous lines that stopping running
• To the patient:
• Intraoperative:
• Most common
• • Sounds and conversation
• • Sensation of paralysis
• • Anxiety and panic
• • Helplessness and powerlessness
• • Pain
• Least common
• • Visual perceptions
• • Intubation or tube
• • Feelings operation without pain
• Postoperatively:
• Temporary effects:
• Sleep disturbances
• Nightmares
• Daytime anxiety
• Sustained
• Post traumatic stress disorder
• PTSD(post-traumatic stress disorder)
• Most harmful consequence
• Depression, anxiety attacks, sleep disorders,
flashbacks to the experience, and nightmares.
• Pt who have no explicit recall of intraop events, but
who develop symptoms suggestive of intra operative
awareness, such as recurrent dreams about being
buried alive.
• A pt’s understanding of their experiences can affect the
psychological impact of awareness.
• Pt may think their awareness is impossible
• Leading them to become confused or question their own sanity.
• Towards anaesthesiologist:
• Medicolegal implications
• 2% of total claims
• ASA closed claim database
• 1971 -2001 : 1% - 3% continue growing.
• Reported awards to pts for awareness with recall
• $1000 –$600, 000
• Practice Advisory for Intraoperative Awareness and
Brain Function Monitoring:
• Pre op evaluation
• Pre indution phase
• Post operative period
• Clinical techniques and conventional monitoring:
• Assess intraoperative consciousness
• checking for movement,
• response to commands,
• eyelash reflex,
• pupillary responses,
• respiratory pattern,
• perspiration and tearing.
• Conventional monitoring systems
• ECG,
• blood pressure,
• heart rate,
• end tidal anaesthetic analyzer
• capnography
• I. Spontaneous EEG activity monitors:
BIS:
• BIS converts a single channel of frontal EEG into an
index of hypnotic level
• Targeting a range of BIS values 4060 to prevent
awareness
• Entropy describes the irregularity, complexity or
unpredictability characteristics of a signal.
• A single sine wave represents a completely predictable
signal (entropy=0)
• A noise from a random number generator represents
• entropy =1
• SE is computed from the EEG in the 0.8- to 32-Hz
range
• RE is computed from facial EMG 0.8 to 47 Hz
• SE range is 0 (isoelectric EEG) to 91 (fully awake)
• RE range is 0 to 100.
• The anesthetic range is 40 to 60
• SE outside this range may require a change in hypnotic
dosing.
• whereas if the SE is in this range but the RE is more than
10 above the SE, more analgesic may be required.
• Visual classification of the EEG patterns associated with
various stages of sleep.
• The original electronic algorithm classified the frontal
EEG according to:
• A (awake),
• B (sedated),
• C (light anaesthesia),
• D (general anaesthesia),
• E(general anaesthesia with deep hypnosis),
• F (general anaesthesia with increasing burst
suppression).
• Patient State Analyser
• SNAP index
• Cerebral State Monitor
• From a mathematical analysis of the AEP waveform, the
device generates a AEP index (AAI) that provides a cor-
relate of anaesthetic concentration.
• This AEP index is scaled from 0-100 and the AAI
corresponding with a low probability of consciousness is
<25.
• Opioids
• Alone use
• Do not suppress awareness
• Large doses
• Unresponsive to pain
• Respond to loud noises and remain aware of their surroundings
• when added to N2O
• Do not alter the incidence of awareness
• Do not alter basal BIS measurements
• Opioids
• Reduce the amount of cortical arousal asso. with peripheral pain
• Reduce the possibility that surgical pain will cause pt to awaken.
• Psychological trauma asso. with awareness and pain is greater than that
of awarenes without pain
• Propofol, barbiturates, etomidate, and
halogenated volatile agents
• Modulate GABA R. activity
• Shift the cortical EEG to lower frequencies
• BIS and EEG based monitor
• Provide strong correlation with hypnosis for this group
• N2O and ketamine
• Do not modulate GABA R., but they do produce
hypnosis
• Unchanged or increased high frequency EEG signals
• High reported incidence of dreaming during anesthesia
• BIS and EEG monitors
• Do not accurately predict the depth of anesthesia
• New “ correlates of consciousness”
• Lead to development of more universally applicable monitors
for anesthetic depth.
• Potent analgesia- NMDA receptor inhibition in spinal
cord.
• Suppress cortical arousal during painful stimulation – reduce
the prabability of awareness
• N2O-volatile mixtures
• MAC for N2O and voaltile agent
• Additive
• Eg, mixture of 0.5 MAC N2O + 0.5 MAC volatile agent
• Supress movement in response to pain like 1 MAC volatile
• Hypnotic activities of N2O and volatile agent
• Sub-additive
• Eg, mixture of 0.5MAC awake N2O + 0.5 MAC awake volatile
agent
• Is not as hypnotic as 1 MAC awake volatile
• N2O
• Antagonizes the hypnosis induced by volatile agent, perhaps
via direct cortical arousal.
• Take patient seriously
• Investigate previous anaesthetic technique &
circumstances
• Comorbidity / medications
• Reassure
• Sedative pre med
• Intraop ET agent monitoring / BiS
• Postop visit
• Good Peri op records
• Take patient’s complaint seriously
• Visit patient as soon as possible, along with a witness
• Detailed history – modified Brice interview
• Document patient’s exact memory
• Attempt to confirm validity of account
• Patient anaesthetic records / theatre circumstances
• Try to determine cause
• Reassure / offer explanation / document
• Keep a copy of records
• Offer psychological support
Thank you!

Intraoperative awareness

  • 1.
  • 2.
    • Privation ofsenses or Lack of sensory perception • What is General Anaesthesia ? • State of unconsciousness or the lack of thought processing.
  • 3.
    • Hypnosis (unconsciousness) • Analgesia (decreasing pain) • Amnesia (preventing recall) • Impairment of skeletal muscle (preventing movement) • Physiologic support (maintaining respiratory and • cardiovascular function, fluid management, electrolyte • control, and thermoregulation )
  • 5.
    • The cruxof the difficulty in defining “anesthetic depth” is that unconsciousness cannot be measured directly. • What can be measured is response to stimulation.
  • 6.
    • The “depth”of anesthesia is determined by • the stimulus applied, • the response measured, • the drug concentration at the site of action that blunts responsiveness.eg. • MAC AWAKE • MAC • MAC BAR
  • 10.
    • Awareness— • Postoperativerecall of events occurring during general anesthesia • Amnesic wakefulness— • Responsiveness during general anesthesia without postoperative recall • Dreaming— • Any experience (excluding awareness) that patients are able to recall postoperatively that they think occurred during general anesthesia and that they believe is dreaming
  • 11.
    • Explicit memory— •Conscious recollection of previous experiences (“awareness” is evidence of explicit memory) • Implicit memory— • Changes in performance or behavior that are produced by previous experiences but without any conscious recollection of those experiences (“unconscious memory formation” during general anesthesia)
  • 12.
    • is thepostoperative recall of sensory perception during general anaesthesia. • Rare but serious • May occur despite apparently sound anaesthetic management • Usually not associated with pain.
  • 13.
    Stage 1: Consciousawareness with explicit memory Stage 2: Conscious awareness without explicit memory Stage 3: Subconscious awareness with implicit memory Stage 4: No awareness
  • 14.
    • “Definite” awareness •Recall conversations or music that they hear in the OR during the period of awareness • “Probable” awareness • Hearing voices or feeling discomfort asso with intubation or surgery • “Near miss” awareness • More vague and dream-like
  • 15.
    • In 1845,Horace Wells • N2O anesthesia • Pt moved and cried out • No recall of his operation • In 1846, W.T.G. Morton • Ether anesthesia • Surgeons considered it a success • Pt. had been aware, no pain. • From a pt’s perspective, Well’s anesthetic may be considered more successful than Morton’s.
  • 16.
    • Estimation ofthe incidence of awareness • Multiple post anesthetic interviews, usually using a modified Brice interview The Modified Brice Interview • What is the last thing you remember before surgery? • What is the first thing you remember after surgery? • Do you remember anything happening during surgery? • Did you have any dreams during surgery? • What was the worst thing about your surgery?
  • 17.
    • Over all •1 or 2 cases out of every 1000 patients (0.2%) • Obstetric 0.4% • Cardiac cases 1.1-1.5% • In children 0.8-1.2%.
  • 18.
    • Awareness resultsfrom an imbalance between anesthetic requirement and anesthetic delivery • Normal Requirement—Low Delivery • Low Requirement—Very Low Delivery • High Requirement—Normal Delivery
  • 19.
    • Patient related: •Age • Sex • Genetics • ASA physical status • Drug resistance or tolerance(substance abuse and chr. Pain treated with high dose opoids) • Concurrent medications • Past history of awareness • Difficult intubation
  • 20.
    • Surgery related •High Risk Surgeries • Caesarian section (0.4%) • Major trauma/Emergency (11-43%) • Cardiac surgery (1.1-1.5%)
  • 21.
    • Anaesthesia related •Reduced anesthetic doses in presence of paralysis • Rapid sequence induction • total intravenous anaesthesia. • Nitrous Opioid anesthesia • Pharmacological masking of signs of inadequate depth of anaesthesia- • Use of muscle relaxants
  • 22.
    • Machine malfunctionor misuse resulting in an inadequate delivery of anaesthesia: • Drug administration errors • Mis-labeled drug syringes • Empty vaporizers • Leaky gas delivery circuits • Dysfunctional or misused drug infusion pumps • Intravenous lines that stopping running
  • 23.
    • To thepatient: • Intraoperative: • Most common • • Sounds and conversation • • Sensation of paralysis • • Anxiety and panic • • Helplessness and powerlessness • • Pain
  • 24.
    • Least common •• Visual perceptions • • Intubation or tube • • Feelings operation without pain
  • 25.
    • Postoperatively: • Temporaryeffects: • Sleep disturbances • Nightmares • Daytime anxiety • Sustained • Post traumatic stress disorder
  • 26.
    • PTSD(post-traumatic stressdisorder) • Most harmful consequence • Depression, anxiety attacks, sleep disorders, flashbacks to the experience, and nightmares. • Pt who have no explicit recall of intraop events, but who develop symptoms suggestive of intra operative awareness, such as recurrent dreams about being buried alive. • A pt’s understanding of their experiences can affect the psychological impact of awareness. • Pt may think their awareness is impossible • Leading them to become confused or question their own sanity.
  • 27.
    • Towards anaesthesiologist: •Medicolegal implications • 2% of total claims • ASA closed claim database • 1971 -2001 : 1% - 3% continue growing. • Reported awards to pts for awareness with recall • $1000 –$600, 000
  • 28.
    • Practice Advisoryfor Intraoperative Awareness and Brain Function Monitoring: • Pre op evaluation • Pre indution phase • Post operative period
  • 33.
    • Clinical techniquesand conventional monitoring: • Assess intraoperative consciousness • checking for movement, • response to commands, • eyelash reflex, • pupillary responses, • respiratory pattern, • perspiration and tearing.
  • 34.
    • Conventional monitoringsystems • ECG, • blood pressure, • heart rate, • end tidal anaesthetic analyzer • capnography
  • 35.
    • I. SpontaneousEEG activity monitors: BIS: • BIS converts a single channel of frontal EEG into an index of hypnotic level • Targeting a range of BIS values 4060 to prevent awareness
  • 37.
    • Entropy describesthe irregularity, complexity or unpredictability characteristics of a signal. • A single sine wave represents a completely predictable signal (entropy=0) • A noise from a random number generator represents • entropy =1 • SE is computed from the EEG in the 0.8- to 32-Hz range • RE is computed from facial EMG 0.8 to 47 Hz
  • 38.
    • SE rangeis 0 (isoelectric EEG) to 91 (fully awake) • RE range is 0 to 100. • The anesthetic range is 40 to 60 • SE outside this range may require a change in hypnotic dosing. • whereas if the SE is in this range but the RE is more than 10 above the SE, more analgesic may be required.
  • 39.
    • Visual classificationof the EEG patterns associated with various stages of sleep. • The original electronic algorithm classified the frontal EEG according to: • A (awake), • B (sedated), • C (light anaesthesia), • D (general anaesthesia), • E(general anaesthesia with deep hypnosis), • F (general anaesthesia with increasing burst suppression).
  • 40.
    • Patient StateAnalyser • SNAP index • Cerebral State Monitor
  • 41.
    • From amathematical analysis of the AEP waveform, the device generates a AEP index (AAI) that provides a cor- relate of anaesthetic concentration. • This AEP index is scaled from 0-100 and the AAI corresponding with a low probability of consciousness is <25.
  • 42.
    • Opioids • Aloneuse • Do not suppress awareness • Large doses • Unresponsive to pain • Respond to loud noises and remain aware of their surroundings • when added to N2O • Do not alter the incidence of awareness • Do not alter basal BIS measurements • Opioids • Reduce the amount of cortical arousal asso. with peripheral pain • Reduce the possibility that surgical pain will cause pt to awaken. • Psychological trauma asso. with awareness and pain is greater than that of awarenes without pain
  • 43.
    • Propofol, barbiturates,etomidate, and halogenated volatile agents • Modulate GABA R. activity • Shift the cortical EEG to lower frequencies • BIS and EEG based monitor • Provide strong correlation with hypnosis for this group
  • 44.
    • N2O andketamine • Do not modulate GABA R., but they do produce hypnosis • Unchanged or increased high frequency EEG signals • High reported incidence of dreaming during anesthesia • BIS and EEG monitors • Do not accurately predict the depth of anesthesia • New “ correlates of consciousness” • Lead to development of more universally applicable monitors for anesthetic depth. • Potent analgesia- NMDA receptor inhibition in spinal cord. • Suppress cortical arousal during painful stimulation – reduce the prabability of awareness
  • 45.
    • N2O-volatile mixtures •MAC for N2O and voaltile agent • Additive • Eg, mixture of 0.5 MAC N2O + 0.5 MAC volatile agent • Supress movement in response to pain like 1 MAC volatile • Hypnotic activities of N2O and volatile agent • Sub-additive • Eg, mixture of 0.5MAC awake N2O + 0.5 MAC awake volatile agent • Is not as hypnotic as 1 MAC awake volatile • N2O • Antagonizes the hypnosis induced by volatile agent, perhaps via direct cortical arousal.
  • 46.
    • Take patientseriously • Investigate previous anaesthetic technique & circumstances • Comorbidity / medications • Reassure • Sedative pre med • Intraop ET agent monitoring / BiS • Postop visit • Good Peri op records
  • 47.
    • Take patient’scomplaint seriously • Visit patient as soon as possible, along with a witness • Detailed history – modified Brice interview • Document patient’s exact memory
  • 48.
    • Attempt toconfirm validity of account • Patient anaesthetic records / theatre circumstances • Try to determine cause • Reassure / offer explanation / document • Keep a copy of records • Offer psychological support
  • 49.