Highlights a clinical case of intraoperative awareness where a patient experienced and recalled severe pain and conversations during surgery.
Explicit recall during surgery remains possible; this case leaves open optimal monitoring strategies for awareness prevention.
To the Editor.— By reading R. S. Blacher's article, I was prompted to write about a case I had witnessed. A 39-year-old woman had surgery for acute appendicitis. I had observed her for several years for mild hypertension, and she had a history of depression, but at the time of her recent illness she appeared very stable and healthy. I was not in attendance from the time of the surgical consultation until the fifth postoperative day. When I then asked how she was recovering and if she had had much pain after surgery she said, "After, no; that is nothing. It hurts and they give me a shot, and it takes the pain away. But the operation was terrible! So painful, like a nightmare." It turned out that she had definite recall of painful stimuli during surgery. She also recalled people and conversations from the operating room, although this was
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Inger-Lise Silbergleit (1976) studied this question.
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