Expert: Dr Ian Jackson - please note UK based - 6/2/2008

Question
Hi Dr, I underwent surgery last week for the removal of haemoroids. The general anesthetic was a terrible experience. It took some seconds before i was unconscious and in that time, i was fully aware. I could not breath not could i notify anyone that i was still conscious. When talking to my anesthesiologist after the operation, he said that it has appeared as though i had suffered a seizure after being given the anesthetic drug, but that i stablised and the procedure was able to take place. He said that this may have been caused by me being on Effexor. I am very scared that this terrible experience may happen again if i ever need to have a general anaesthetic again. Do you think that it is possible that the effexor could have caused this reaction to the anesthetic?

Answer
Hi David
I am sorry that you had such a stormy start to your anaesthetic. It would be interesting to know what drugs your anaesthetist used during the start of your anaesthetic and whether you were paralysed and ventilated as part of their technique.
The answers to this would influence what I could say about this incident. The fact that you were conscious and could not breathe (and so were aware of this issue) would suggest that you were not having a fit (seizure). People do not tend to be able to remember what happened during a seizure. I am also doubtful that your medication played any major role in this. As I say above I would really need to know about the drugs used but I suspect you may have been given a muscle relaxant (a drug that blocks your ability to use your muscles) and this took effect before the anaesthetic agent to put you to sleep took effect. It may be that because of your medication it took you longer to go to sleep or you needed more of the sleep drug used than was anticipated. A patient who feels paralysis coming on feels helpless and very agitated and tries to move and indicate there is a problem, this could be mistaken for the movements of a seizure.
So I believe this is not a problem for future anaesthetics. Ensure that you describe what happened during this anaesthetic to anyone looking after you in the future and they will be very careful to ensure that it does not happen to you again.
Please also remember the above is only my best estimate of what might have happened based on the information you provided.
Kind regards
Dr Ian Jackson