Expert: Ronald Levy, M.D. - 3/29/2009

Question
Hello, my mother in-law had her matrix (uterus) taken out Dec. 2007 and she said that they gave her too much anesthesia, it was done in Bolivia and I do not know what kind or how much they gave her, my question is that is it possible that too much can cause nightmares, for she has them almost every night plus loss of memory. Thank you..

Answer
If she got too much anesthesia, she would have died, not had nightmares! I don't know why she has nightmares but one possibility is that she got Ketamine as an anesthetic. Ketamine is a phencyclidine derivative and can cause bad dreams. Usually they only last for a little while. As for the memory loss, again it is common with some anesthetics but only for the time period of the surgery. If she has memory loss for events after surgery (or is still having nightmares) she should be seen by a neurologist to make sure that there is nothing else going on.

Ronald Levy, MD
Professor of Anesthesiology
UTMB-Galveston