Factors Affecting the Post-Anesthetic Recovery Score and Length of Stay in the Recovery Room in Elderly Patients with Hypertension

Background/Objectives: As the elderly experience a decline in physical and mental function, their memory decreases, their dependence increases, and their adaptability is reduced, resulting in a reduction in their ability to adapt to surgical operations. To improve the elderly patients’ resilience to surgery and anesthesia, it is necessary to identify factors that affected them.

Methods/Statistical Analysis: The subjects of this study were 104 elderly patients with hypertension, who underwent elective surgery under general anesthesia, understood the purpose of this study, and voluntarily agreed to participate in the study. In this study, data on the general characteristics of patients, disease-related factors, and related postoperative factors were collected. Data collected were analyzed using IBM SPSS 25.0 program. The significance level was set to .05.

Findings: The factors significantly affecting the post-anesthetic recovery score included education level, experience of surgical operation, anesthesia length, operative site, GCS, body temperature, and cerebrovascular complications, and their explanatory power was 68.9% (p<.001). The factors significantly affecting the length of stay in the recovery room included the frequency of surgical operations, cardiac disease, operative site, pain, body temperature, airway obstruction, and the amount of bleeding, and their explanatory power was 54.9% (p<.001).

Improvements/Applications: To increase the post-anesthetic recovery score and reduce the length of stay in the recovery room in elderly surgical patients, it is necessary to identify the influencing factors and provide appropriate interventions. We suggest that further studies be conducted in the future to investigate factors related to surgical operations and anesthesia in the elderly.