[The recovery room - function and organization (author's transl)].

Postanaesthetic observation and control of the patient, independently of surgery, is an integral part of the anaesthetic course. The anaesthetic procedure is terminated in the recovery room only, where all negative effects of anaesthesia and surgery or their sequels can be properly assessed and eliminated. After restoration of vital functions and protective reflexes only the patient may be transferred to normal wards or intensive care units for further control of his postoperative condition. Following long-term surgery, and in any high-risk case in general, postoperative mechanical ventilation or application of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) can reduce the incidence of respiratory complications. The additional and extensive therapeutic and diagnostic tasks to be covered in the recovery room call for special consideratons in equipping and staffing. Adequately trained nurses in sufficient number, respiratory devices covering any mode of ventilation and an emergency laboratory are indispensable prerequisites for proper function. Only then the anaesthesiologist will be able to satisfactorily perform his comprehensive task of providing stable vital functions, preoperatively in establishing the state of operability, intraoperatively by corrective therapy and postoperatively until anaesthetic effects and surgical trauma have subsided.