Factors that may be associated with delay to hospital discharge after same–day surgery with intravenous Anesthesia

Sammanfattning: Background: There are a number of different anesthetic techniques used in same-day surgery. The aim of the present study was to try to describe the postoperative clinical course and to identify factors that may be associated with the delay time from the surgical procedure was completed until discharge from hospital when intravenous anesthesia was used. Methods: A Quantitative Cross- sectional designed was used by using a self-designed questionnaire. Results: Total of 289 patients were enrolled in the study. The mean age was 40 years and 63% were women and 37% men. Of the 289 patients’ only one required unanticipated admission over night at the hospital. The median delay from completed surgery until discharge from hospital was 2 hours and 5 minutes and the maximum delay was 5 hours and 55 minutes. All patients received general anesthesia with an intravenous as maintenance anesthesia. Important risk factors for increasing postoperative delay were the severity of the postoperative pain and thereby the requirement of opioids in the postoperative phase Conclusion: Then undergoing daytime surgery the median delay from completed surgery until hospital discharge was about two hours. Problems with postoperative pain was associated with a prolonged delay. Thus, in order to shorten the delay to hospital discharge even further the pain-relieving treatment needs to be enhanced.