More children wake during ops

Children are more likely to be awake during surgery than adults, Australian research suggests.

More than 850 children were questioned after being anaesthetised, uncovering 28 cases of suspected awareness, said research team leader Andrew Davidson.

Four independent adjudicators all agreed that of those, seven children - almost 1 per cent - had been awake during their surgery.

Dr Davidson, of the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, said the incidence of adult awareness under anaesthetic was much lower - between 0.1 and 0.2 per cent.

He said the children, selected randomly from among operating theatre patients at the hospital, recalled things such as the noise of an orthopaedic saw.

"One having an ear tube insertion remembered the doctor making a hole in the ear drum and then sucking out the fluid inside the ear.

"Another child having a needle popped in their hip remembered the feeling of the needle being poked around."

Dr Davidson said the research, recently published in the American Journal of Anaesthesia and Analgesia, was one of the first large studies to look at children's awareness during anaesthetic.

He was "very, very surprised" by the number of children who were awake during anaesthesia.

"We've always assumed it doesn't happen in children," Dr Davidson said.

"It may be ... children just don't tell anyone. They may be afraid to tell.

"I had one child who was aware who told her mother and her mother told her, 'Don't be stupid. That doesn't happen'."

Dr Davidson reported the findings to the annual scientific meeting of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists in Auckland at the weekend.

He said a couple of the children remembered being in pain during their surgery, but it was not severe.

"It didn't seem to make the children nearly as anxious as I expected it would.

"We followed the children up for a month. It didn't seem to have an effect on their behaviour."

Nevertheless, Dr Davidson said more studies needed to be done to better gauge levels of anxiety.

The Melbourne study, carried out between 2002 and last year, suggested anaesthetists might need to think about giving children more anaesthetic to prevent awareness, he said.

"This has generated considerable concern among paediatric anaesthetists."

- AAP