Assessing the potential for awareness and learning under anesthesia

The problems of intraoperative learning and awareness during surgery have consequences for both the patient and the medical team. With or without recall, the patient can suffer severe emotional trauma that may result in psychological damage. Successful litigation against the anesthesia professional has been increasing in numbers as failure to provide adequate anesthesia can be considered a breach of the unwritten contract between patient and anesthetist. Balanced anesthesia and its use of muscle relaxants can mask indicators of anesthesia depth such as movement or lacrimation. To date, means of monitoring real-time levels of intravenous agents have not yet been fully tested and proven. Therefore, monitoring minimum alveolar concentrations of inhaled anesthetics may be the best currently available method of ensuring anesthetic depth. Investigations comparing the correlation between nitrous oxide and isoflurane minimum alveolar concentrations and anesthetic depth have indicated specific levels at which intraoperative learning ceases to occur.