Postoperative Recovery After General and Regional Anesthesia in Patients Undergoing Day Surgery: A Mixed Methods Study

• Published in: Journal of perianesthesia nursing Vol. 34; no. 3; pp. 517 - 528
• Main Authors: Nilsson, Ulrica, Jaensson, Maria, Dahlberg, Karuna, Hugelius, Karin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.06.2019
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Ambulatory Surgical Procedures - methods; Anesthesia Recovery Period; Anesthesia, Conduction - methods; Anesthesia, General - methods; day surgery; fatigue; Fatigue - epidemiology; Fatigue - etiology; Female; Humans; Interviews as Topic; Male; Medicin och hälsovetenskap; Middle Aged; mixed methods; Nursing; Pain, Postoperative - epidemiology; patient experience; patient-reported outcomes; postoperative; Postoperative Period; Single-Blind Method; Surveys and Questionnaires; Sweden; Young Adult; Sweden; postoperative; patient-reported outcomes; fatigue; day surgery; mixed methods; patient experience
• ISSN: 1089-9472; 1532-8473; 1532-8473
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jopan.2018.08.003

To investigate differences and describe experiences of postoperative recovery after day surgery between patients undergoing general anesthesia (GA) versus regional anesthesia (RA). A mixed methods design. Day surgery patients (N = 401) were included. Postoperative recovery was assessed daily for 14 days using the Swedish Web Version of the Quality of Recovery questionnaire included in a mobile application. In addition, qualitative interviews were completed with 20 day surgery patients. Quantitative and qualitative data were first analyzed separately and then merged. There were significant differences in Swedish Web Version of the Quality of Recovery between GA and RA on days 1 to 13 (P < .05). These findings could not be confirmed in the qualitative findings, except for psychological issues as well as tiredness and fatigue. Unexpected issues contributed to a greater extent to the theme not feeling well. Pain in the surgical wound was overall the biggest problem. There seems to be a poorer recovery after GA compared with RA. Tiredness or fatigue is present also after minor surgery in RA. Unexpected issues affect recovery negatively, and therefore should be addressed by health care.