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BY COSIMO ARNESANO

 

 

 

 

BME 240-Spring 2009

 

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Important Definitions

Consciousness is a state in which a patient is able to process information from his or her surroundings. Consciousness is assessed by observing a patient’s purposeful responses to various stimuli.

Recall is the patient’s ability to retrieve stored memories. Recall is assessed by a patient’s report of previous events, in particular, events that occurred during general anesthesia. Explicit memory is assessed by the patient’s ability to recall specific events that took place during general anesthesia. Implicit memory is assessed by changes in performance or behavior without the ability to recall specific events that took place during general anesthesia that led to those changes.

Wakefulness
has been used to describe patients who are able to react meaningfully to stimuli during general anesthesia but are not able to recall either the stimuli or their reactions.

A dream
during anesthesia has been defined as any experience (excluding awareness) which a patient thought occurred between the induction of anesthesia and the first moment of consciousness after anesthesia.

Awareness (during general anesthesia)
is defined as “Post-operative recall of events occurring during general anesthesia.