Postoperative complications in the first 24 hours: a general surgery audit.

BACKGROUND Traditionally, the purpose of routine postoperative surveillance has been to detect postoperative complications. The literature reports well-documented, procedure-specific postoperative complication rates. However, there are no reports detailing the prevalence of postoperative complications in general surgical ward settings, where nurses care for patients following a variety of surgical procedures. AIMS This paper reports an audit of the frequency and type of postoperative complications in a general surgical population occurring in the first 24 hours postoperatively. METHOD A patient record audit was undertaken for all postoperative patients who returned to two general surgical wards. This was conducted sequentially, involving a 4 week data collection phase in each participating ward during 2001. RESULTS The audit sample comprised 144 patient records with an average patient age of 54 years. Statistically significant results included the rate of postoperative nausea and vomiting of 37.5% (n = 54), and 17% (n = 25) of patients experiencing another 'clinical event'. LIMITATIONS The findings reflect only those complications recorded/documented in postoperative patients' records, and cannot be generalized beyond the sample and setting. CONCLUSIONS Postoperative patients cared for on general surgical wards experienced a high level of nausea and vomiting, while the occurrence of life-threatening complications was small.