Remembrance
New research has been carried out to test what people can remember after a general anesthetic in an effort to more clearly understand anesthesia awareness and help to protect patients from experiencing it. A memory is not one simple entity; it is a system of many intricate details and networks.
Memory is currently classified under two main subsections.
- First there is explicit or conscious memory, which refers to the conscious recollection of previous experiences. An example of explicit memory is remembering what you did last weekend. When it comes to an anesthetized patient, a doctor may ask the patient after undergoing general anesthesia if he or she could remember hearing any distinct sounds or words while under anesthesia. This approach is called a "recall test" because patients are asked to recall any memories they had during surgery.
- The second main type of memory is implicit memory or unconscious memory, which refers to the changes in performance or behavior that are produced by previous experiences but without any conscious recollection of those experiences. An example of this is a recognition test, where patients are asked to determine, after surgery, which of a selection of words could be heard to during the surgery. The following scenario is an example. Patients were exposed during anesthesia to a list of words containing the word "pension". Postoperatively, when they were presented with the three-letter word stem PEN___ and were asked to supply the first word that came to their minds beginning with those letters, they gave the word "pension" more often than "pencil" or "peninsula" or others.
Some researchers are now formally interviewing patients postoperatively to calculate the incidence of anesthesia awareness. It is good practise for the anesthesiologist to visit the patient after the operation and check that the patient was not aware. Most patients who were not unduly disturbed by their experiences do not necessarily report cases of awareness unless directly asked. Many who are greatly disturbed report their awareness but anesthesiologists and hospitals deny it has happened. It has been found that some patients may not recall experiencing awareness until one to two weeks after undergoing surgery. It was also found that some patients require a more detailed interview to jog their memories for intraoperative experiences but these are only untraumatic cases. Some researchers have found that anesthesia awareness does not commonly occur in minor surgeries, it may occur more frequently in more serious surgeries and it is good practise to warn of the possibility of awareness in those cases where it may be more likely.
Read more about this topic: Anesthesia Awareness
Famous quotes containing the word remembrance:
“My love to Hermia,
Melted as the snow, seems to me now
As the remembrance of an idle gaud
Which in my childhood I did dote upon.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Let me approach at least, and touch thy hand.
[Samson:] Not for thy life, lest fierce remembrance wake
My sudden rage to tear thee joint by joint.
At distance I forgive thee, go with that;
Bewail thy falsehood, and the pious works
It hath brought forth to make thee memorable
Among illustrious women, faithful wives:
Cherish thy hast’n’d widowhood with the gold
Of Matrimonial treason: so farewel.”
—John Milton (1608–1674)
“Then I said to myself, “What happens to the fool will happen to me also; why then have I been so very wise?” And I said to myself that this also is vanity. For there is no enduring remembrance of the wise or of fools, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How can the wise die just like fools?”
—Bible: Hebrew, Ecclesiastes 2:15-16.