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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.
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