Antiseptic phobia in a patient experiencing anesthesia awareness during cleft palate repair surgery: a case report

Specific phobia is an excessive and irrational fear often triggered by a stressor. Among different types of phobias arising in medical settings, we could not find any case reported for exclusively antiseptic fluids without any medical-surgical intervention. The term "anesthesia awareness" (AA) signifies the specific surgical period of time when an individual, in spite of being under intended general anesthesia, remains aware of the sensory stimuli and the memories of which also remain available for his subsequent explicit recall in the future. According to the "American Society of Anesthesiologists Practice Advisory", it is explicit recall during general anesthesia. Its hallmark is the presence of awareness of the events going on during the surgical procedure while being under a general anesthesia. AA is a distressing condition with immediate and long-term consequences. In spite of an estimated prevalence of 0.1%-0.2% of all the surgeries, our knowledge about this condition is limited. The most commonly reported consequences of AA are acute painful flashbacks of surgical events along with the emotional turmoil and a sense of helplessness followed later by posttraumatic stress disorder. Here, we report a unique case of occurrence of "antiseptic-phobia" in a patient following the experience of anesthesia awareness during cleft palate repair surgery.