Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 May 23;5(3):e649.
doi: 10.1002/hsr2.649. eCollection 2022 May.

Incidence and factors associated with post-anesthesia care unit complications in resource-limited settings: An observational study

Bisrat Abebe  1 , Natnael Kifle  2 , Muluken Gunta  3 , Temesgen Tantu  4 , Mekete Wondwosen  5 , Dereje Zewdu  6
Affiliations

Incidence and factors associated with post-anesthesia care unit complications in resource-limited settings: An observational study

Bisrat Abebe et al. Health Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Background and aims: Postoperative complications are frequent encounters in the patients admitted to postanesthesia care units (PACU). The main aim of this study was to assess the incidence of complications and associated factors among surgical patients admitted in limited-resource settings of the PACU.

Methods: This is an observational study of 396 surgical patients admitted to PACU. This study was conducted from February 1 to March 30, 2021, in Ethiopia. Study participants' demographics, anesthesia, and surgery-related parameters, PACU complications, and length of stay in PACU were documented. Multivariate and bivariate logistic regression analyses, the odds ratio (OR), and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated. p-value < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant.

Results: The incidence of complications among surgical patients admitted to PACU was 54.8%. Of these, respiratory-related complications and postoperative nausea/vomiting were the most common types of PACU complications. Being a female (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 2.928; 95% CI: 1.899-4.512) was significantly associated with an increased risk of developing PACU complications. Duration of anesthesia >4 h (AOR = 5.406; 95% CI: 2.418-12.088) revealed an increased risk of association with PACU complications. The occurrences of intraoperative complications (AOR = 2.238; 95% CI: 0.991-5.056) during surgery were also associated with PACU complications. Patients who develop PACU complications were strongly associated with length of PACU stay for >4 h (AOR = 2.177; 95% CI: 0.741-6.401).

Conclusion: The identified risk factors for complications in surgical patients admitted to PACU are female sex, longer duration of anesthesia, and intraoperative complications occurrences. Patients who developed complications had a long time of stay in PACU. Based on our findings, we recommend the PACU team needs to develop area-specific institutional guidelines and protocols to improve the patients' quality of care and outcomes in PACU.

Keywords: anesthesia; postanesthesia care unit; postoperative complications.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Incidence of complications among surgical patients admitted to postanesthesia care units.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Faraj JH, Vegesna AR, Mudali IN, et al. Survey and management of anesthesia‐related complications in PACU. Qatar Med J. 2013;2012(2):15. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Zelcer J, Wells DG. Anesthetic‐related recovery room complications. Anes Inten Care. 1987;15(2):168‐174. - PubMed
    1. Belcher AW, Leung S, Cohen B, et al. Incidence of complications in the post‐anesthesia care unit and associated healthcare utilization in patients undergoing non‐cardiac surgery requiring neuromuscular blockade 2005–2013: a single‐center study. J Clin Anesth. 2017;43:33‐38. - PubMed
    1. Kluger MT, Bullock MF. Recovery room incidents: a review of 419 reports from the Anaesthetic Incident Monitoring Study (AIMS). Anesthesia. 2002;57(11):1060‐1066. - PubMed
    1. Van der Walt JH, Webb RK, Osborne GA, Morgan C, Mackay P. The Australian incident monitoring study. Recovery room incidents in the first 2000 incident reports. Anes Inten Care. 1993;21(5):650‐652. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources