Factors Associated with Delayed Recovery from General Anesthesia

Postoperative recovery from general anesthesia is an important finding that can be attributed to patients, anesthetic agents, the length of the surgical procedure and physiologic derangements occurring during the perioperative period. The early identification of potential risk factors may help improve postoperative monitoring for patients and safety. The purpose of this study was to explore the factors related to delayed recovery from general anesthetic during surgical operation at Tikrit teaching hospital, Baghdad, Iraq. The current study is a retrospective observational analytical study which included 200 cases (Male & female) who underwent surgery under General anesthesia in Tikrit Teaching Hospital during study period (January 2023- January 2025). Data were collected from the medical records, anesthesia chart, operative report, recovery records and available laboratory investigations. Data analyzed included the following demographic data, ASA Physical status, comorbidities, anesthetic drugs, time of anesthesia, physiological parameters, lab data and recovery data. Delayed recovery was considered as not regaining adequate consciousness within 30 minutes after discontinuation of general anesthetic agents. It was planned to statistically analyze the data using an IBM SPSS Statistics (version 23.0) at a significant level of p < 0.05. The potential links between delayed recovery and advanced age, ASA physical status, duration of anesthetic, administration of sedatives and opioids, hypothermia and electrolyte disturbance were recognized and used to plan the analysis. The proposed illustrative model suggested that a better ASA physical status, a longer duration of anesthesia (more than 180 minutes) and hypothermia during the surgery may be associated with a higher risk for delayed recovery. But these results need to be confirmed with the real patient data before they can be presented as study results. This can be a complex process and the patient's recovery from general anesthesia should be evaluated systematically for preop health, exposure to anesthetic and intraop stability. Appropriate anesthetic management, temperature control and structured postoperative monitoring may identify a patient as being at risk. In this study population, clinical records would have to be examined to identify the independent predictors for delayed recovery.