Originally published October 28 2005
Anesthesiologists respond to recent litigation by creating new safety standards
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The American Society of Anesthesiologists met in Atlanta to improve standards that would prevent patients from waking up during surgery, and the group created a checklist for anesthesia equipment to ensure proper doses are delivered to patients.
A national doctors' group adopted new standards Tuesday to help prevent patients from awakening during surgery.
The American Society of Anesthesiologists, meeting in Atlanta, approved the group's first-ever standards on preventing a rare but terrifying situation in which patients wake up during surgery and sometimes feel excruciating pain without being able to cry out.
Such awakenings occur in one or two cases out of every 1,000, the group said.
But the phenomenon received press coverage following some lawsuits by patients, and after the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations last year urged hospitals to better monitor patients for the problem and ask them about it after surgery.
The anesthesiologists' society called for doctors to follow a checklist protocol for anesthesia equipment to make sure proper doses are being delivered.
However, the group decided against adopting a new generation of brain-function monitors as a standard of care.
The BIS monitor tracks brain-wave activity and provides doctors a reading that represents the mathematical probability the patient is wide awake.
Aspect has pushed for its machines to become a standard feature in operating rooms, but some doctors have resisted, saying clinical evidence of BIS monitors' effectiveness was wanting.
On Tuesday, the society said doctors can consider the devices on a case-by-case basis - particularly in trauma surgeries and Caesarean sections, which are two procedures in which deep anesthesia is often avoided and partial awareness is most likely.
Carol Weihrer, who won an out-of-court settlement after her anesthesia failed during a five-hour eye surgery in 1998, was disappointed.
Now a patient advocate, she said that technology that might prevent a patient's suffering should be used and also called for the society to help establish a registry for case reports of surgical awareness.
All content posted on this site is commentary or opinion and is protected under Free Speech. Truth Publishing LLC takes sole responsibility for all content. Truth Publishing sells no hard products and earns no money from the recommendation of products. NaturalNews.com is presented for educational and commentary purposes only and should not be construed as professional advice from any licensed practitioner. Truth Publishing assumes no responsibility for the use or misuse of this material. For the full terms of usage of this material, visit www.NaturalNews.com/terms.shtml