Kolawole I K
Department of Anaesthesia, University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Ilorin, Nigeria.
Niger J Med. 2003 Apr-Jun;12(2):84-90.
The subject of postoperative complication and prevention has continued to generate interest in the last decade. Unfortunately, very few data are available locally to assess the extent of the problems and measures designed to address them.
This prospective study was designed to identify the anaesthesia-related postoperative complications at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, through a follow-up programme.
The study was conducted at the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Nigeria between August, 1999 and February, 2000.
A total of 172(67 male and 105 female) patients who underwent various types of surgical operations under general anaesthesia were followed up postoperatively for five days. Clinical progress including complications related to anaesthesia were recorded.
There were 105 female and 67 male patients with a mean age of 35.27 (range 10-70) years. Of the total number only 7(9.88%) had no complications of any kind. The remaining 155(90.12%) had complications ranging from transient episode of shivering in the recovery room to severe respiratory tract infection. The commonest postoperative complication observed was respiratory tract infection, which occurred in 29.65% of patients. This was followed by pyrexia (Temp > 37 degrees C) (27.91%), nausea/vomiting (23.36%) and sore throat (19.77%). Ocular complication and urinary retention ranked lowest in the list of complications, each occurring in one patient (0.58%).
This study has shown that despite recent advances in anaesthetic techniques and the introduction of newer anaesthetic drugs, the incidence of postanaesthetic complications has not changed significantly in our environment.
