Analysis of prolonged length of waiting area stay and risk factors in elderly patients undergoing painless gastroenteroscopy

Objective To investigate the length of waiting area stay of elderly patients leaving the recovery room after painless gastroenteroscopy and screen the related risk factors.Methods A total of 1 014 elderly patients who underwent painless gastroenteroscopy were selected. Their general information, intraoperative and general conditions in post anesthesia care unit(PACU) were collected using a self-made questionnaire. The patients were followed up by telephone within 24 h after surgery to investigate their prolonged stay in the waiting area after leaving the recovery room. According to their prolonged length of stay, the patients were divided into two groups: an extended group and a non-extended group. The risk factors for prolonged length of the waiting area stay after leaving the recovery room were analyzed by the univariate analysis and multifactorial logistic regression.Results There were 222(21.9%) patients with prolonged length of the waiting area stay after leaving the recovery room. Univariate analysis showed that debilitation, the time period of examination, intraoperative hypoxemia, postoperative hypotension and nausea and vomiting were the factors with significant effect on the prolonged length of waiting area stay in elderly patients undergoing painless gastroenteroscopy after leaving the recovery room(P＜0.05). According to multifactorial logistic regression analysis, preoperative debilitation, gastroscopy in the afternoon, intraoperative hypoxemia, postoperative hypotension, and postoperative nausea and vomiting were risk factors for prolonged length of waiting area stay in patients after leaving the recovery room.Conclusions Preoperative assessment of frailty, reasonable time schedule of gastroenteroscopy, routine intraoperative monitoring of partial pressure of end-tidal carbon dioxide, enhanced blood pressure monitoring in PACU and preventing of postoperative nausea and vomiting, are beneficial to shorten the length of waiting area stay for elderly patients after leaving the recovery room.