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.