The Recovery Room…..a safe haven, or a disaster waiting to happen?

Abstract

The measure of a good anaesthetic may well differ, depending on whether you are the patient, the surgeon, the anaesthesiologist, or the postoperative nursing staff. Ultimately, however, the patient should be the judge of whether his or her anaesthetic was a good experience. An essential part of this experience is the recovery process which is continual, and may last for up to a few days. The less serious, non-life-threatening adverse events such as postoperative pain, nausea and vomiting, drowsiness and dizziness have been shown to be predictors for patient satisfaction and level of postoperative functioning.