Total intravenous anaesthesia with propofol and remifentanil for elective neurosurgical procedures: an audit of early postoperative complications.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES This was a prospective audit to assess the incidence and characteristics of early postoperative complications in the recovery room in extubated patients after elective neurosurgical procedures using propofol and remifentanil-based total intravenous anaesthesia. METHODS Vital signs (temperature, conscious level, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, pulse and blood pressure) and postoperative complications (shivering, nausea, vomiting and cardiorespiratory) were analysed in 145 adult patients over a 1-yr period. RESULTS The overall shivering, postoperative nausea and vomiting and postoperative hypertension (systolic blood pressure more than 25% of the preoperative value) incidences were 30.3%, 16.6% and 35.2%, respectively. Fifty-one percent of the patients had at least one of the above complications. The complication rates were found to be widely different among various types of neurosurgery. The surgical procedures were divided into five groups: supratentorial craniotomy, posterior fossa craniotomy, intracranial vascular procedures, transphenoidal hypophysectomy and extracranial procedures. Median extubation time was similar in all groups and patients were fully conscious with no hypoxia in the recovery room. The intracranial vascular group had the highest shivering and postoperative nausea and vomiting rates (58.8% and 29.4%, respectively). In the supratentorial craniotomy group, 46% of the patients had hypertension. The overall complication rate (presence of any complications) was highest in the supratentfial craniotomy (55.4%), posterior fossa craniotomy (75%) and intracranial vascular (76.5%) groups. Shivering and overall complication rate was significantly related to the anaesthetic time (P<or=0.001 and 0.02, respectively). CONCLUSIONS Despite the potential advantages of total intravenous anaesthesia in titratability, rapid return of consciousness and reduced respiratory complications, making it suitable for planned extubation at the end of neurosurgery, the postoperative complications of shivering, postoperative nausea and vomiting and hypertension were still high.