Severe Emergence Agitation After General Anesthesia: Risk Factors In1625Patients

Objective: Postoperative agitation in the post-anaesthesia care unit(PACU) ispoorly understood. The goal of this retrospective study was to identify frequency andcausative risk factors of severe emergence agitation on the postoperative length of stayin PACU after general anaesthesia.Methods:In this retrospective study,1625patients who had been admittd to thePACU after general anaesthesia were analyzed. Inadequete emergence was classifiedin its different forms according to the Richmond agitation sedation scale. Severe emer-gence agitation was defined as a RASS score≥＋3.Results: Of the1625patients,88(5.4%) patients displayed symptoms of severeemergence agitation. It was more common in males (89%) than in females (11%). Theaverage age of the patients is47.48±16.65years. The patients who were40-60yearsaccounted for23.1%. Malignant tumor patients accounted for17.9%. Open operationpatients accounted for89.7%. Severe emergence agitation was more common afterabdominal surgical operation (8.67%). Multivariate analysis showed that age (P=0.002), white blood cell count (P=0.003), hemoglobin (P=0.011), albumin (P=0.004), total bilirubin (P=0.002), aspartate aminotransferase (P=0.005), blood loss(P=0.003), inhalation anesthesia time (P=0.011), the highest heart rate in surgery(P=0.003), the highest intraoperative systolic pressure (P=0.001), urine volume (P=0.002) were the independent risk factors associated with severe emergence agitation.Other causes were the presence of catheter stimulation (37.5%), pain (32.9%) andtracheal catheter stimulation(21.6%)Results: Independent risk factors for severe emergence agitation are male,40-60years, elevated white blood cell count, low hemoglobin, albumin, total bilirubin,aspartate aminotransferase, intraoperative blood loss, inhalation anesthesia time, the highest intraoperative rate, the highest systolic blood pressure and urine volume.Catheter stimulation, pain and tracheal catheter stimulation.are also importantcausative risk factors of severe emergence agitation.