‘Surgery shock’ announces the Daily Mirror, warning that, ‘150 patients woke up during operations last year and many couldn’t alert the doctor.’
It’s unsurprising that a tabloid headline plays on our nightmares – being awake but unable to move during surgery sounds like something out of a horror film. In fact, the news is based on a study looking at the number of patients who experience ‘accidental awareness’ after being given a general anaesthetic.
Researchers found that the incidence of accidental awareness was actually far lower than expected. Contrary to the impression given by the Mirror, only 46 incidents happened during operations in a one-year period.
Previous research calculated the incidence of accidental awareness as between one and two per 1,000 general anaesthetics given.
This study, based on a survey of senior UK anaesthetists, found a far lower rate of only around one in 15,000. More reassuringly still, two-thirds of patients who woke up “reported feeling no pain or distress”.
The findings of this study need to be viewed with some caution, however. Survey data has limitations: as the authors note, it is possible that cases of accidental awareness may have been either under- or over-reported.
