The 5th National Audit Project (NAP5) on accidental awareness during general anaesthesia: patient experiences, human factors, sedation, consent and medicolegal issues.

Reviewing data reported from every public hospital in the United Kingdom and Ireland regarding accidental patient awareness during anesthesia, this study revealed that distress and longer-term harm were prevalent in such incidents despite their short time duration (most lasted less than 5 minutes). The majority of cases were found to be preventable, emphasizing the need to avoid these events.