Study: 100 patients a day in USA wake up during surgery
Anesthesia failure that allows a patient to wake up during surgery, paralyzed and unable to cry for help, occurs 100 times a day in the USA, a study reports Monday.
The rate is similar to those documented by previous international studies, but many doctors have long questioned the prevalence. This is the first time in more than 30 years that the problem has been quantified in U.S. hospitals.
These findings, and the results of two similar trials also to be released today, led the Food and Drug Administration late Friday to broaden its approval of a device it says has reduced the risk of patients waking up during surgery. The BIS monitor, which is used in one-third of U.S. hospitals, turns the brain's EEG waves into a number that can tell anesthesiologists at a glance how deeply a patient is sedated.
Another study of 1,200 patients found that using the BIS monitor reduced the frequency of...
