Postoperative oxygenation in the elderly following general or local anaesthesia for ophthalmic surgery

Summary Peripheral oxygen saturation was recorded on the pre-operative night (between 2400 and 0600 h), the immediate postoperative period (first 60 min) and the first postoperative night (2400 to 0600 h) in 18 elderly patients aged 70 years or over presenting for elective ophthalmic surgery. Nine patients had surgery performed under general anaesthesia employing muscle relaxants and controlled ventilation and nine under local anaesthesia using a peribulbar block. The median (interquartile range) percentage of time during which the patients had an oxygen saturation of less than 90% was 0 (0–0.2) and 0.04 (0–0.4) on the pre-operative night, 0.7 (0–1.4) and 0.3 (0–1.2) in the immediate postoperative period, and 0.05 (0–0.16) and 0 (0–0.3) on the postoperative night in the general and local anaesthesia patients respectively. There were no significant differences between general and local anaesthesia in respect of these data and the overall incidence of significant desaturation was low. The present study could not demonstrate any adverse effect of general anaesthesia on oxygen saturation in patients undergoing minimally invasive surgery.