Background and objectives: Intraoperative awareness is accidental or unintentional awareness during general anesthesia that occurs when complete anesthesia has not been achieved. The aim of this study was to investigate the occurrence of awareness with recall during general anesthesia in opium-addicted and non-addict patients undergoing abdominal and pelvic surgeries.

Methods: The study population consisted of patients undergoing abdominal and pelvic surgeries under general anesthesia in two hospitals in Gorgan, Northeast of Iran. Data were collected 20-36 hours after the surgery using a three-part questionnaire on demographic information, surgery and anesthesia details and anesthesia awareness and recall of events. Data were analyzed in SPSS (version 18) using the Chi-square test.

Results: Of 206 patients, 53.9% were male and 56.3% were undergoing abdominal surgery. None of the patients in the two groups felt hearing, pain, cold or heat during anesthesia, and neither of them dreamed or recalled any event during the anesthesia and surgery period. There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in terms of anesthesia awareness with recall. According to the patients, the night before the operation, opium addicts were more anxious the night before the surgery and felt more pain right after the surgery.

Conclusion: There is no statistically significant difference in terms of occurrence of anesthesia awareness between opium-addicted and non-addicted patients undergoing pelvic and abdominal surgeries. However, opium addicts experience significantly higher level of anxiety the night before surgery compared to non-addicts. In addition, opium addicts experience more pain immediately after recovery.