Waking up during surgery causes psychological problems in the long run. Around half of all patients who wake during surgery experience long-lasting psychological trauma.Thankfully, it is rare to wake up when under anaesthesia. It happens to only 0.2 to 0.7 per cent of patients.
Doctors at Boston University School of Medicine have studied a group of such people. They found they remembered many unpleasant emotions and sensations: terror, pain, paralysis and a profound feeling of betrayal by medical staff.For half of these patients, waking during surgery led to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a long-lasting psychological reaction that is more commonly linked with war and natural disaster. The problem is that these patients may go undetected ,become emotionally detached. Their heart rates after the operation are low, rather than elevated. It is very essential to treat PTSD at an early stage, tahn to delay and miss out on vital treatment.
