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It's not uncommon to wake people up during brain surgery, or do the surgery without fully anesthetizing the patient at all. They would anesthetize the skull are

It's not uncommon to wake people up during brain surgery, or do the surgery without fully anesthetizing the patient at all. They would anesthetize the skull area they cut through. And the brain tissue itself doesn't register pain when cut. They do it so the surgeons can interact with the patient to guide them in what areas they have to stay away from when removing a tumor or doing other work. Here's more: https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/awake-brain-surgery/about/pac-20384913 https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/awake-brain-surg...

throwanem 6y ago
Sure, I'm aware, and I don't know of any reports of emotional harm as a result of that. I think it'd probably be the combination of pain, helplessness, surprise, and recollection that'd be what causes the trauma in cases where people regain consciousness unintentionally. In the kind of surgery you describe, at most two of those seem likely ever to be present, and because the awareness is intentional I expect there'd be more and/or different pharmacological support to help insulate the patient from the full reality of the situation. So I don't think awake brain surgery is likely all that usefully comparable to the accidental awareness we're discussing here.
- andrewl 6y ago
  I thought you were referring to Tapland's report "I remember the doctors asking me after partial removal of a brain tumour if I remembered them waking me up during the surgery" when you said it "would probably be by far the worst agony you'd ever experienced." Accidental awareness during surgery has always sounded massively traumatic to me. Even thinking about it makes me intensely uncomfortable.
  - throwanem 6y ago
    I don't know. I have some fairly complex thoughts here, but I'm coming at it as someone for whom there is evidently something deeply weird going on with their whole perception of this category of sensation - I don't find opioids at all pleasurable, either, and it was only a few months ago that I found out how unusual that is. Not that I'd try to change any of this even if I thought I could, but I suppose it doesn't really equip me to talk on the subject in a way that'd likely be of use to anyone normal.

throwanem 6y ago

Sure, I'm aware, and I don't know of any reports of emotional harm as a result of that. I think it'd probably be the combination of pain, helplessness, surprise, and recollection that'd be what causes the trauma in cases where people regain consciousness unintentionally. In the kind of surgery you describe, at most two of those seem likely ever to be present, and because the awareness is intentional I expect there'd be more and/or different pharmacological support to help insulate the patient from the full reality of the situation. So I don't think awake brain surgery is likely all that usefully comparable to the accidental awareness we're discussing here.

andrewl 6y ago
I thought you were referring to Tapland's report "I remember the doctors asking me after partial removal of a brain tumour if I remembered them waking me up during the surgery" when you said it "would probably be by far the worst agony you'd ever experienced." Accidental awareness during surgery has always sounded massively traumatic to me. Even thinking about it makes me intensely uncomfortable.
- throwanem 6y ago
  I don't know. I have some fairly complex thoughts here, but I'm coming at it as someone for whom there is evidently something deeply weird going on with their whole perception of this category of sensation - I don't find opioids at all pleasurable, either, and it was only a few months ago that I found out how unusual that is. Not that I'd try to change any of this even if I thought I could, but I suppose it doesn't really equip me to talk on the subject in a way that'd likely be of use to anyone normal.