Post-anaesthetic respiratory events
A total of 86/1750 (4.9%) patients had post-anaesthetic respiratory
events, of which 81 (94.2%) occurred among the inpatient group. It was
unclear in one study how many patients were admitted due to having a
respiratory event post-operatively (15) and this study was excluded from
the above analysis. The most reported respiratory event was oxygen
desaturations which occurred in 72 patients (83.7%), and of these, 26
(36.1%) were recorded specifically in recovery or in the
post-anaesthetic care unit (PACU). The majority of these were managed
with simple oxygen supplementation and no further complications were
observed. The 5 patients in the day case group had oxygen desaturations
in PACU and were given oxygen supplementation and then discharged the
same day. The severity of desaturation and duration of oxygen
supplementation was unclear. Other reported respiratory events included
laryngospasms (n=3) (7, 14), tongue swelling (only in patients who had
concurrent tongue surgery, n = 9) (8), upper airway obstruction due to
floor of mouth haematoma (had concurrent tongue surgery, n=1) (8) and
significant airway compromise requiring naloxone, oxygen and airway
suctioning (n = 1) (11). For the patient with airway compromise, this
occurred in the immediate postoperative period and the authors
attributed it to incomplete anaesthesia reversal.