Adult patients' wellbeing and disturbances during early recovery in the post anaesthesia care unit. A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Objectives: Assessment of patients' wellbeing in the post anaesthesia care unit and how much each disturbance influences it. Furthermore, assessment of the incidence of the correlated disturbances and whether there are gender-specific aspects.

Design/setting: Observational anonymised survey with a validated questionnaire in a university hospital in central Europe.

Main outcome measures: Incidence rates of wellbeing and disturbances in the post anaesthesia care unit.

Results: The patients' most frequently reported early postsurgical disturbances (n = 349) were i) dry mouth (35.4%), ii) pain in the surgical area (12.7%) and iii) hunger (12.2%). Every other disturbance was below 10% (e.g. nausea). Subjective wellbeing was reported by 57.2% of our patients. There were weak correlations between wellbeing and physical discomfort, pain in the surgical area, sleepiness and nausea. The strongest correlation was with physical discomfort. Female patients showed more feelings of cold, nausea and headache.

Conclusion: Even in hospitals repeatedly certified in pain management, a high percentage of patients still claim early postoperative discomfort. We see the necessity for an increased focus on this topic and the need for investigations regarding patients' perception. The most frequent claims were related to pain in the surgical area and a dry mouth.

Keywords: Discomfort; PACU; Patient centred care; Patient related outcome; Postoperative wellbeing.