Postoperative care

After surgery, and before being transferred to the ward, patients will be recovered in a specially designated area: the recovery area or post-anaesthetic care unit (PACU). In recovery, there are some postoperative problems that we need to be familiar with managing: postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV), emergence delirium (it is important to recognize it, and be able to differentiate it from agitation) and pain. Those patients who need postoperative critical care will be admitted to a high-dependency unit (HDU) or paediatric intensive care unit (PICU), depending on their required level of care. Each time the patient is transferred to a different area, a thorough handover between the giving and receiving team is paramount. This chapter provides the reader with the means to manage common recovery problems, and an understanding of patient postoperative dependency levels.