'Awake' the Movie Highlights the Need for 'Goldilocks' Anesthesia, Says Dr. Barry L. Friedberg, Developer of Bispectral Index (BIS) Monitored Propofol Ketamine Sedation, Now Trademarked as Minimally Invasive Anesthesi...( CORONA DEL MAR Calif. Nov. 27 /- ...),Health

CORONA DEL MAR, Calif., Nov. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- 'Awake' the movie is a psychological thriller that tells the story of a man who suffers "anesthetic awareness" and finds himself awake and aware, but paralyzed, during heart surgery.

It has been 30 years since Robin Cook's 'Coma' captured and terrified the American public's imagination. 'Coma' is the gripping story of patients who check into a hospital for "minor" surgery -- and never wake up again.

"Five years after the book and movie, I still had patients extremely reluctant to have surgery in Room 8, the site of Coma's (fictional) dastardly deeds," says Dr. Friedberg.

In 1977, the anesthesia profession was 7 years away from technology that would have obviated the premise of Coma; i.e. inflicting the lack of oxygen to produce the vegetative state in patients so they could be harvested for organ transplants.

That monitor, the pulse oximeter, was introduced in 1984. Pulse oximetry was only recognized by the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) as a 'standard of care' nearly a decade later.

"Primarily serving as a political organization, the ASA sometimes lags behind reasonable clinical practice. After all, why wouldn't you want to know instantaneously if your patient had adequate oxygen in their blood?" queries Friedberg.

In 2007, 'Awake' the movie may, again, needlessly terrify the American public. This time the technology that would have obviated the premise of the movie has been available since 1996, when the FDA approved its use. "Again," asks Friedberg, "Why wouldn't you want to know how asleep your patient is?"

No technology is perfect, even level of consciousness monitors. The prototype is the bispectral (BIS) index monitor. A published scientific study (2004) showed it was 82% less likely for patients to remain awake when their anesthesiologist believed they were asleep.

Why, then, have considerable numbers of anesthesia providers been reluct
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