Abstract

CASTELLON VALDIVIESO, Jose Miguel  and  VIGONES ARANEDA, Alan. A PERCEPTION AND FEARS OF ANESTHESIC PRACTICE: A PERSPECTIVE FROM CHILE. Rev Cient Cienc Méd [online]. 2016, vol.19, n.1, pp.34-38. ISSN 2077-3323.

Anesthesiology is usually a not enough known specialty for its low public exposure and clinical contact with patients. In different studies it has been found that there is lack of knowledge by patients about the anesthetic practice and the specialist. In Chile there are no studies of this type. In this study, we sought to identify the different perceptions and fears of anesthesia; and knowledge regarding the formation and role of the anesthetist. It was through an observational cross-sectional study, using a voluntary and anonymous survey within students, college staff and professors of the Universidad Mayor from Santiago de Chile. The results showed that 79% recognised the anesthetist as specialist, 77% who keeps the patient asleep, 76% who sleeps patients, 64% that relieves pain, 6% who cares the patients in the Unit Intensive care and 14% answered all of the above. Regarding fears, 94% feared pain, 92% waking up, 84% not to wake after the surgery and 71% that anesthetics affect logic and judgment of thought. The study concluded that the group recognized the anesthetist as a specialist whose role is not limited to just sleep the patient. However, there is still a high prevalence of fears to rare scenarios that can be lowered with a good pre-anesthetic visit.

Keywords : Perception; Knowledge; Fear; Anesthesiology.

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