Effects of fatigue after sleep deprivation on cognitive functions in anaesthesia residents

ABSTRACT

Maintaining vigilance during an anaesthetic is hampered by a variety of factors relating to the patient, working environment and anaesthetist himself. Since fatigue is a common issue in the medical environment, there have been many studies of the effects of sleep deprivation and fatigue on human performance and well being. A review of the literature does not permit us to come to any specific conclusion due to the many flaws/shortcomings in most of the studies, including poor definition of the degree of acute sleep deprivation, lack of assessment of accumulated chronic fatigue, the effects of diurnal variation in performance, motivation and incentives etc. A need was felt to study the effects of fatigue associate with sleep deprivation in anaesthetists. We undertook this study in the anaesthesia residents to assess the effects of sleep deprivation on the mental performing abilities. Department of Anaesthesiology, Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital, Faridkot, Punjab [India]. Residents of anaesthesia department. We excluded the variables known to affect the outcome. The residents who had used sedatives, alcohol or other similar CNS depressants; those with systemic illness/organic disorder or left handedness were excluded. In this study, fifty residents of anaesthesia were tested under two situations using a battery of cognitive function tests. Group I comprised of residents after their routine day duty [10 hrs, non sleep deprived]. Group II was formed by the same residents after their night duty with less than 4 hours of sleep in the previous 24 hours [sleep deprived]. The results lead us to the following. Fatigue following sleep deprivation adversely affects the psychomotor and cognitive functions of the anesthetist but not the short term