PARENTAL PERCEPTIONS, EXPECTATIONS AND PREFERENCES FOR THE POSTANESTHETIC RECOVERY OF CHILDREN

Improvements in anaesthesia have led to the introduction of rapid-acti ng agents which quicken recovery and decrease sleepiness. Whether pare nts believe a rapid postanaesthetic recovery is an advantage is unknow n. Therefore, we evaluated the parental perceptions, expectations and preferences for the postanaesthetic recovery of children. One hundred and three parents of children having ambulatory surgery completed a st ructured questionnaire and the results of 101 are presented. Results i ndicate that 93% of parents expect their child to be sleepy after surg ery. Seventy-four per cent of parents indicated they would prefer thei r child to be sleepy or tired in the first 24 h postoperatively. Eight -five percent of parents would not be upset if their child's discharge was delayed up to three hours because their child was too sleepy Fina lly 45.5% of parents are extremely concerned about their child experie ncing postoperative pain and 68% believe that their child would be in more pain if they recovered rapidly from the anaesthetic. These result s indicate that rapid recovery from anaesthesia and quick discharge fr om hospital are not key expectations of parents of children admitted f or day surgery. Parents associate a rapid recovery with more pain. Par ents need to be more fully informed of the advantages of a rapid recov ery and reassured that children can recover quickly and completely but at the same time be comfortable postanaesthetic.