Some people have the unfortunate experience of being awake and aware while under general anaesthesia during surgery.
My question is, in this condition, if their eyes are open, can these people see? And also, can they move their eyes?
Anyone know?
-FrL-
In many cases the eyes are taped shut to keep them from drying out. If the eyes were to be left untaped, they would be at least partly open and they would see.
Being able to move depends on the type of anaesthesia. If the patient is given a paralytic, and nothing else, they are fully awake, but unable to move.
According to the Wiki on anesthesia awareness just how conscious a patient is varies widely. They mention that often (presumably not always) a muscles paralytic/muscle relaxant is used which presumably would prevent the patient from looking around or otherwise being able to indicate consciousness.
Sounds like a freaking nightmare if it happens. It may be too expensive but one would think they could use some sort of brain wave analysis to see if a patient is truly unconscious.
I was hoping for an actual account, because precisely what I’m wondering is whether they are able to see even though they can’t move their eyes. At least some people doing work on perception say that vision requires the ability to move one’s eyes, but I’m not sure what the basis for that claim is.
-FrL-
I’ve cared for patients in the ICU who needed to be kept paralyzed, but were only sedated rather than fully anesthesitized. A few said they remembered things that happened during their paralysis, most did not. Those that did have any recall at all, remembered touch more than visual.