With people’s pursuit of medical quality and comfort, there are more and more cases of anesthesia in outpatient surgery and operation, especially painless abortion, painless gastrointestinal endoscopy, etc.
In these painless operations, anesthesia not only provides comfortable experience for patients, but also inevitably brings some disputes.
In 2015, West China Hospital reported three cases of medical disputes caused by anesthesia after induced abortion in outpatient clinics.
After the smooth painless abortion, the three patients showed facial distortion, blushing, sweating, involuntary movement and other manifestations during the monitoring process. After the anesthesiologist woke up, the three patients all complained of sexual harassment by the anesthesiologist.
Although doctors felt strange about such allegations and there were explanations from other medical staff present, the patient still insisted that the anesthesiologist sexually harassed him, and the family of one of the patients even had physical conflicts with the medical staff.
The anesthesiologist’s innocence was not confirmed until the hospital called the police and obtained monitoring.
Why do patients make such strange accusations to doctors? Why do patients believe in hallucinations during surgery and awakening?
This is all related to outpatient surgery and commonly used anesthetic drugs.
Narcotic drug-induced hallucination
In various outpatient operations, the application of narcotic drugs requires quick onset and metabolism, and at the same time eliminates negative emotions such as tension, anxiety and fear of patients. Anesthetized patients often have euphoria and the feeling of waking up at the beginning of a dream.
In foreign countries, as early as the 1990s, there were cases of patients producing sexual hallucinations during painless abortion, and even cases of testimony in court. It was not reported for the first time in China until 2004, which may be related to domestic cultural traditions.
According to statistics, the rate of sexual hallucinations during painless abortion is about 10%, and sexual hallucinations also occur in painless gastrointestinal endoscopy, gynecological outpatient examination, etc.
The disaster caused by sub-anesthesia
Because narcotic drugs act on the center, inhibit the cerebral cortex, affect the patient’s perception of pain. At the same time, it also has inhibitory function for respiratory and circulatory functions, showing dose-dependent type. Therefore, in outpatient surgery, most people tend not to give patients too much narcotic drug dose to prevent respiratory and cardiac arrest.
Therefore, in clinical operations such as painless abortion and painless gastrointestinal endoscopy, patients are mostly in a [sub-anesthetic] state, and the subcortical nuclei responsible for regulating the body’s sexual behavior, emotional response and memory generation fading cannot be fully inhibited.
At the same time, narcotic drugs may stimulate patients to produce dreams. Moreover, in this state, the patient’s dream experience or hallucination experience will be slightly truthful and described quite vividly and concretely, which some patients believe.
In addition, the generation of sexual hallucinations is likely to be related to the stimulation of some sensitive parts of the patient’s body, especially tactile sensation. It is also obviously related to the patient’s psychological state and hormone level at that time, which is also why the proportion of sexual hallucinations after painless abortion surgery is higher than that of other operations.
Communication, Understanding and Resolving Embarrassment
Faced with such complaints of sexual harassment, it is also really embarrassing for medical staff. It is also a very unpleasant experience for patients who think they have been sexually harassed.
In this case, in addition to explaining the reason to the patient in the first place and inviting the personnel present to testify, timely obtaining the surveillance video of the hospital operating room is also the best choice to resolve the dispute.
After understanding the cause and effect of [sexual hallucination], especially for patients who have had unhealthy hallucinations, I hope that I can take this opportunity to let some patients’ inner shadow disappear and soothe their psychological trauma. At the same time, I also have more trust, tolerance and understanding for our doctors.
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