Anest. intenziv. Med. 2017;28(1):5-11

The most frequent complications associated with general anaesthesia from the patient's point of view. Questionnaire comparative study 2007/2014Anaesthesiology - Original Paper

L. Obare Pyszková¹, K. Dostálová¹, B. Davidová¹, M. Kozlová¹, J. Zapletalová², M. Adamus¹, Š. Fritscherová^1,*

¹ Klinika anesteziologie, resuscitace a intenzivní medicíny, Fakultní nemocnice Olomouc a Lékařská fakulta Univerzity Palackého v Olomouci

² Ústav lékařské biofyziky, Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci

Objective:
Postoperative pain, nausea, vomiting, hypothermia and other complications can deteriorate patient's status and prolong length of stay in hospital. Our study describes the most frequent complications associated with general anaesthesia and assesses the trend of changes from 2007 to 2014.

Design:
Clinical, retrospective, observational study.
Setting:
University hospital (Departments of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, General and Vascular Surgery, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Urology, Plastic and Aesthetic Surgery, Traumatology).

Materials and methods:
The 2014 study included 693 patients whereas the 2007 study had included 1942 patients. The samples were statistically comparable. All patients had undergone elective surgery under general anaesthesia and all patients were aged 18 years or older. The anaesthesiologist visited all the patients with a questionnaire on the first postoperative day. The aim was to capture post-anaesthesia problems and their management from the patients' point of view. The statistical data were analysed using SPSS v. 22 (USA) software, the level of statistical significance was set at 5%.

Results:
In 2007, the most frequent complaint was pain in the site of surgery (28.1%), sore throat (16.2%), dry mouth (15.0%), nausea (13.4%), vomiting (8.6%) and chills including shivering (4.5%). Other complaints occurred with a frequency of less than 3.0%. In 2014 the pain in the site of surgery decreased to 20.2%, sore throat to 3.9% and dry mouth to 1.3%. Vomiting (10.8%), nausea (9.1%), and shivering with chills (4.8%) showed little or no change from 2007.

Conclusion:
There was a decrease in some common postoperative complications reflecting better patients' comfort in 2014 compared with 2007.

Keywords: postoperative complications; postoperative pain; postoperative nausea and vomiting; sore throat; postoperative chills and shivering

Received: July 12, 2016; Accepted: September 19, 2016; Published: February 1, 2017  Show citation