Postoperative Recovery After General and Regional Anesthesia in Patients Undergoing Day Surgery: A Mixed Methods Study

Abstract

To investigate differences and describe experiences of postoperative recovery after day surgery between patients undergoing general anesthesia (GA) versus regional anesthesia (RA). Design: A mixed methods design. Methods: Day surgery patients (N 5 401) were included. Postoperative recovery was assessed daily for 14 days using the Swedish Web Version of the Quality of Recovery questionnaire included in a mobile application. In addition, qualitative interviews were completed with 20 day surgery patients. Quantitative and qualitative data were first analyzed separately and then merged. Findings: There were significant differences in Swedish Web Version of the Quality of Recovery between GA and RA on days 1 to 13 (P , .05). These findings could not be confirmed in the qualitative findings, except for psychological issues as well as tiredness and fatigue. Unexpected issues contributed to a greater extent to the theme not feeling well. Pain in the surgical wound was overall the biggest problem. Conclusions: There seems to be a poorer recovery after GA compared with RA. Tiredness or fatigue is present also after minor surgery in RA. Unexpected issues affect recovery negatively, and therefore should be addressed by health care.

Factors Determining the Choice of Spinal Versus General Anesthesia in Patients Undergoing Ambulatory Surgery: Results of a Multicenter Observational Study

“…General anesthesia has been recommended to ensure a relatively rapid onset of action and to reduce procedure-related stress. But the prolongation of motor blockade may increase the length of time in hospital and some side effects may complicate patient management [2].…”

“…Spinal anesthesia is a simple and reliable technique with a success rate of over 90% [3][4][5][6]. However, general anesthesia is commonly preferred because of its faster onset of action [2]. Spinal anesthesia is also associated with a better control of postoperative nausea and vomiting [7] and a higher possibility of early discharge [8,9].…”

A journey to a new stable state—further development of the postoperative recovery concept from day surgical perspective: a qualitative study

“…The 18 participants in sample I underwent surgery between December 2015 and July 2016, and were recruited from 4 different day-surgery departments. 8 The remaining 20 participants (sample II) underwent surgery from June to September 2017 and came from 2 different day-surgery departments 18 (table 1). Interviews were performed by two of the authors (KD for sample I and KH for sample II).…”

Validity and Reliability of the Korean Anesthesia Surrendering Instrument

“…Anesthesia, a factor associated with surgical complications, can be broadly classified as general and regional anesthesia [6]. General anesthesia refers to the overall loss of consciousness accompanied by suppression of sensory, motor, and reflex stimulation; patients consider surgery requiring general anesthesia as a major invasive procedure [7].…”