Accuracy of Children's Perioperative Memories

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Anesthesia
• Child Psychology
• Medical Memory Studies

Background:

• Children's declarative memories impact future medical event responses.
• Accuracy of pediatric surgical memory remains understudied.
• Understanding memory aids post-operative care and patient experience.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the accuracy of declarative memories in children after ambulatory surgery.
• To evaluate recall of contextual details, pain, and fear.
• To investigate potential memory biases two weeks postoperatively.

Main Methods:

• Recruited 34 anesthesia-naïve children (5-9 years) for ambulatory surgery.
• Assessed memory accuracy for contextual details, pain, and fear two weeks later.
• No parental presence during induction or sedative premedication.

Main Results:

• Children achieved 64.5% mean accuracy for contextual recall.
• 60.6% recalled a specific prompt given during anesthesia induction.
• Memory of pain and fear aligned with acute reports, with some exaggeration (20.7% fear, 36.4% pain).

Conclusions:

• Pediatric surgical memory is generally accurate for key details.
• While some children exaggerate pain/fear recall, no consistent memory bias was observed.
• Findings inform strategies for pediatric patient communication and memory support.