[Early perioperative mortality in a multidisciplinary hospital]. / Mortalité périopératoire précoce dans un hôpital pluridisciplinaire.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the incidence and the causes of early intra- and postoperative deaths in a multidisciplinary hospital. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective survey. PATIENTS: All patients receiving an anaesthetic between 1992 and 1995. METHODS: Analysis of all deaths occurring during anaesthesia and in the subsequent 24 hours. Demographic data (age, gender) and medical data (ASA physical class, type of surgery and degree of emergency) were recorded. The contribution of anaesthesia, surgery or patient disease to fatal outcome was analysed. RESULTS: The analysis included 52,654 patients who underwent either general anaesthesia or epidural analgesia. Perioperative mortality (n = 170) was 1/310 patients (0.32%). The risk factors for mortality (multivariate analysis) were: age > 64 years (odds-ratio [OR] 4.8), ASA class > or = 3 (OR 16.6), emergency surgery (OR 3.6), duration of surgery > 115 minutes (OR 37.4). Fifty percent of deaths (95% confidence interval [CI] = 42-58) were related to patient's underlying diseases and 29% to surgery (CI 95% = 22-36). The percentage of deaths linked to anaesthesia was 17.6% (CI 95% = 11.9-23.3, 1/1,755), consisting of 8.2% (CI 95% = 4.1-9.3, 1/3,761) totally due to anaesthesia and 9.4% (CI 95% = 5-13.8, 1/3,291) only partially. The main aetiologies of the deaths linked to anaesthesia were a mismanagement of severe haemorrhages (30%), respiratory complications (23%) or cardiac complications (23%). The mismanagement of an intraoperative critical situation (46%) and a mistake in the post-operative care (33%) were the main causes. DISCUSSION: In this survey, mortality due to anaesthesia was higher than the rates reported in other studies. Human error remained the main cause.

[Explanatory factors for length of stay in the postoperative intensive care unit]. / Facteurs explicatifs de la durée de passage en salle de surveillance postinterventionnelle.

OBJECTIVES: Because of the increasing role of post-anaesthesia care in anaesthetic activity, the explicative value of various factors on post-anaesthesia length of stay (POLS) was tested. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective study. PATIENTS: Population of 38,655 patients admitted to the post-anaesthesia care unit (PACU) between 1990 and 1994. METHOD: Multivariate analysis (semiparametric Cox model) of POLS. RESULTS: Overall 71% of the patients stayed less than four hours in PACU. Average POLS did not vary with years. Eleven variables were related to POLS, with an odds-ratio (OR) between 0.75 and 0.77 (negative link) or between 1.22 and 2.77 (positive link). A comparison of the OR for years 1990 to 1994 indicated major variations for the following three variables: neurosurgery, mechanical ventilation in PACU, low occupancy rate in the PACU at the time of discharge. CONCLUSION: POLS are linked with various factors whose changes in explicative value can be analysed chronologically. However, other methods remain necessary in order to evaluate the impact of organisational modifications, as the introduction of objective criteria for discharge.