Awake craniotomy: improving the patient's experience.
OBJECTIVE
Awake craniotomy patients are exposed to various stressful stimuli while their attention and vigilance is important for the success of the surgery. We describe several recent findings on the perception of awake craniotomy patients and address nonpharmacological perioperative factors that enhance the experience of awake craniotomy patients. These factors could also be applicable to other surgical patients.


RESULTS
Proper preoperative counseling gives higher patient satisfaction and should be individually tailored to the patient. Furthermore, there is a substantial proportion of patients who have significant pain or fear during an awake craniotomy procedure. There is a possibility that this could induce post-traumatic stress disorder or related symptoms.


CONCLUSIONS
Preoperative preparation is of utmost importance in awake craniotomy patients, and a solid doctor-patient relationship is an important condition. Nonpharmacological intraoperative management should focus on reduction of fear and pain by adaptation of the environment and careful and well considered communication.
Department of Anesthesiology, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Jan-Willem
JW
Potters
Markus
M
Klimek
D000758:Anesthesia / Q000379:methods*; D003399:Craniotomy / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D019635:Neurosurgical Procedures / Q000379:methods*; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D014851:Wakefulness