Impact of Extubation Location After Surgery on Perioperative Times

The additional time required to awaken a patient is one of the main reasons for not extubating him or her in the operating room (OR). Conversely, transferring an intubated patient to recovery room (RR), prolonging the duration of anesthesia and intubation, in a limited environment in human resources, may lead to increased complications' rates. Little is known about those time lengths and complications rates. The primary objective was to evaluate the additional OR occupancy time associated with awakening and extubation. Secondary objectives were to assess the rate of post-extubation complications and the need for ventilatory support. This was a prospective multicenter observational study involving intubated patients who underwent surgeries in the operating theatres of the Montpellier and Clermont-Ferrand university hospitals. Anesthesia teams were asked to complete a form including data related to the patient, surgical procedure, anesthesia procedure (induction and recovery) and the occurrence of any complications during the procedure. A multivariate analysis was conducted on the full cohort, using a propensity score (IPTW, inverse probability of treatment weighting) to account for imbalances between groups.