Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 13, 2026
Assessment and Communication for People with Disorders of Consciousness
Published on: August 1, 2017
Assessment of intraoperative awareness with explicit recall: a comparison of 2 methods
George A Mashour1, Christopher Kent, Paul Picton
1Division of Neuroanesthesiology, Department of Anesthesiology, University of Michigan Medical School, 1H247 UH/SPC-5048, 1500 East Medical Center Drive, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-5048, USA. gmashour@umich.ed
Background:
Superiority of the modified Brice interview over quality assurance techniques in detecting intraoperative awareness with explicit recall has not been demonstrated definitively.
Methods:
We studied a single patient cohort to compare the detection of definite awareness using a single modified Brice interview (postoperative day 28-30) versus quality assurance data (postoperative day 1).
Results:
The incidence of awareness based on the modified Brice interview was 19 per 18,847 or 0.1%. Fewer awareness cases (incidence 0.02%) were detected by the quality assurance approach (P < 0.0001).
Conclusion:
The modified Brice interview is the preferred modality for assessing intraoperative awareness with explicit recall.
