Body Mass Index Is Not an Independent Factor Associated With Recovery Room Length of Stay for Patients Undergoing Outpatient Surgery.

OBJECTIVES

Prolonged recovery time in the postanesthesia care unit (PACU) increases cost and administrative burden of outpatient surgical staff. The primary aim of this study was to determine whether body mass index (BMI) is associated with prolonged recovery in the PACU after outpatient surgery in a freestanding ambulatory surgery center.

METHODS

We retrospectively studied 3 years of surgeries performed at a freestanding ambulatory surgery center. Mixed-effects logistic (for binary outcomes) and linear (for continuous outcomes) regressions were performed, in which the random effect was the surgical procedure. Prolonged PACU length of stay was modeled as a binary variable, that is, stay greater than the third quartile, and as a continuous variable, that is, actual duration of stay in minutes. We reported odds ratio and 95% confidence interval from the logistic regression and estimates with standard errors from the linear regression.

RESULTS

Patients with obesity (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m 2 ) did not demonstrate increased odds for prolonged PACU length of stay (all P > 0.05). Furthermore, BMI-represented as a continuous variable-was not associated with actual PACU length of stay (estimate = 0.05, standard error = 0.06, P = 0.41). No association was found between obesity and PACU length of stay on a subgroup analysis where only patients with obstructive sleep apnea were analyzed.

CONCLUSIONS

There was no association between BMI and PACU length of stay among patients who received outpatient surgery at a freestanding ambulatory surgery center.