Evaluation of Complication Development in General Surgery Patients Admitted to the Post Anesthesia Care Unit

Abstract

Objective of the Study: This study was conducted to analyze the development of complications and risk factors in general surgery patients admitted to the Post-Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU). Method: This prospective and cross-sectional study was performed with 230 patients admitted to the PACU of a university hospital in Istanbul. The data were collected pre- and post-operatively in the PACU using the “Patient Monitoring Form”, which was created by the researcher to track the patient’s descriptive characteristics and development of complication. Percentage, mean, chi-square, Student's t, and logistic regression tests were used for data analysis. Findings: It was found that most of the patients were female aged between 50-65, with a chronic disease included in the ASA II class, who had undergone a laparoscopic cholecystectomy surgical operation, and had a profile of minimal obesity. The most common complications in the PACU were pain (75.7%), hypothermia (58.7%), nausea-vomiting (30.7%), and hypoxemia (20.0%) respectively. Length or duration of operation (OR:1.05; p=0.001) and age (OR: 1.08; p=0.027) were effective risk factors for development of complication; however, no correlation was found between descriptive characteristics of the patients and development of pain (p=0.023). A positive relationship was found between hypothermia and surgical operations with a duration of more than 120.3 minutes (p=0.001). Additionally, age of 57.8 (p=0.002), BMI of 30.8 (kg/m2; p=0.003), and inclusion in the ASA III/IV group (p=0.001) were significant in relation to hypoxemia. Conclusion: It was found that pain, hypothermia, nausea-vomiting, and hypoxemia remained the most common complications in the PACU, and age and duration of operation were effective risk factors in the development of complications. Based on these results, it is recommended to identify high risk factors specific to the patient in advance and to increase nursing practices to prevent/reduce complications.