Postoperative global amnesia reversed with flumazenil

Abstract

Global postoperative amnesia (profound anterograde and retrograde amnesia) is rare and usually attributed to transient global amnesia-a poorly understood condition with no broadly accepted mechanism. We report an incident of probable transient global amnesia in a patient after endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatogram under general anesthesia, which was successfully treated with flumazenil. On the basis of the results of flumazenil administration in this and a previous case report, we would recommend a trial dose of 0.2 mg for cases of global postoperative amnesia, repeated if the first dose seems effective.