Awareness of Patients regarding Anesthesia; Attitude towards Basic Types of Anesthesia Techniques

.. Awareness of patients regarding anesthesia & their attitude towards basic types of anesthesia techniques. Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the knowledge of patients regarding anesthesia, their attitudes towards basic types of anesthesia techniques and effect of previous experience of anesthesia on the awareness. Study design: Descriptive observational study. Place and duration of study: This descriptive, prospective study was conducted in the isra university hospital Hyderabad, Sindh, Pakistan from 2nd August 2013 upto 8th March 2014. Patients and Methods: Two hundred thirty one patients were included in the study after taking verbal informed consent. All patients who were scheduled for elective surgery were interviewed while patients who had refused from participation, have language barrier, psychiatric disease, had lack of sufficient mental capacity due to poor health status and patients undergoing emergency surgeries were excluded from the study. Patients were interviewed in their local language upon arrival in the preoperative area of operation theatre. Self made questionnaire was filled. All the data was entered on SPSS version 16. Frequency and percentages were calculated to show the results. Mean with SD of patients age was computed. Chi-square test was applied to assess the affect of previous experience of surgery on patient’s knowledge regarding anesthesia. P value less than 0.05 was taken as significant. Results: Total 231 patients were included in the study. Mean age of the patients was 36 ± SD 1.01. Fifty one (22.1%) patients were illiterate; while 54 (23.4%) patients were graduate. 103(44.6%) patients had previous experience of surgery/ anesthesia while 128(55.4%) patients had no experience. Out of 231 patients, 111 (48.1%) patients were aware of different type of anesthesia techniques while 120(51.9%) patients were not aware. Out of 103 patients, who had previous exposure of anesthesia, 64 patients answered correctly about different types of anesthesia techniques while 81 patients who had no previous exposure of anesthesia, answered incorrectly (P value = 0.000). Fifty three patients who had previous exposure of anesthesia answered correctly that anesthetist is a qualified doctor, while 62 patients answered incorrectly who had no previous exposure (P value=0.546). Out of 231 patients, 91 (39.39%) patients were in favor of having general anesthesia while 52(22.51%) patients were in favor of regional anesthesia, while 88(38.0%) had left the choice on surgeon. Conclusions: Results of the study show poor knowledge of patients regarding anesthesia and anesthesiologists. Majority of the patients were in favor of having general anesthesia rather regional anesthesia. There is need to correct the misconceptions of patients and to educate the public.