Patients' knowledge of and attitudes towards awareness and depth of anaesthesia monitoring.
Awareness during anaesthesia is uncommon (approximately 0.1%), but causes significant anxiety, dissatisfaction and morbidity for patients. Several electroencephalographic monitors hold promise as monitors for awareness. We therefore conducted a survey to evaluate patients' knowledge of and attitudes towards awareness and monitors of anaesthetic depth. Two hundred consenting, preoperative patients completed a seven-item questionnaire. The median number of previous operations was 2 (inter-quartile range, 1-5). Thirteen patients reported an experience which they thought might be awareness (2% of operations performed on the cohort). Only 56% of patients had heard about awareness before and many (35%) of these had heard about it in the media. Many (35%) were uncertain about what might cause awareness. Many (42.5%) were anxious about awareness: female sex and not having heard about awareness before were significant predictors of anxiety. Nevertheless only 34% were willing to pay for a proven awareness monitor if they were at low risk and only 50% if they were at high risk. Perceived risk and a previous awareness experience were significant predictors of willingness to pay for awareness monitoring.
Leslie
K
K
Departments of Anaesthesia and Pain Management, The Royal Melbourne Hospital and The Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria.
Lee
L
L
Myles
P S
PS
Lerch
N
N
Fiddes
C
C
D000328:Adult; D000758:Anesthesia / Q000523:psychology*; D001364:Awareness; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic / Q000191:economics / Q000523:psychology*; D013514:Surgical Procedures, Operative; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires