[Recollections of ventilated patients after a stay in the intensive care unit]

A review of the literature reveals only scarce data and observations concerning the recollections of patients treated in a intensive care unit, although intraoperative awareness under general anaesthesia has been extensively reported. In the present study we investigated the recollections of patients who had undergone artificial ventilation in intensive care units.

Fifty patients who had undergone mechanical ventilation in intensive care units at the University Hospital of Vienna were retrospectively interviewed in regard of their experience during the treatment. A score was used to quantify discomfort.

All patients remembered having been treated at the intensive care unit. The most unpleasant experience was tracheal suctioning which was remembered by 60%. The next most unpleasant experience was extubation; 52% remembered this intervention. Eighty-four per cent of patients remembered the medical staff, 90% of them had confidence in them, 86% remembered the nursing staff and 91% had confidence in them.

In spite of unpleasant memories of intensive care treatment, of which tracheal suctioning was perceived as most unpleasant, the majority of patients expressed a positive evaluation of their treatment at the intensive care unit.