Risk assessment and preventive nursing on respiratory complication after general anesthesia in post-anesthesia care unit

Background With the improvement of the operating room utilization, more and more anesthesiology department began to transfer patients to PACU for recovery after general anesthesia. Airway management has become the most key and difficult point in PACU. As the main parts of PACU, anesthesia nurses implement the earliest warning management by understanding the patients′ airway to ensure patients safe in PACU. Objective Explore an effective anesthesia nursing model by summarizing the risk assessment and preventive nursing on respiratory complication in PACU. Content Make a summary on the risk factors, clinical features, treatment and management mode of respiratory complications in PACU. Trend In recent years, guidelines and consensus for the management of tracheal extubation had been published, which provide evidence for anesthesia nursing to implement procedural management for patients after general anesthesia including risk evaluation, preparation, observation and nursing model during tracheal extubation. Key words: Post-anesthesia care unit; Respiratory; Complication; Risk assessment; Postanesthesia nursing