Background: The Coombe Women and Infant’s University Hospital (CWIUH) is a Irish tertiary hospital providing comprehensive care for women and infants, as well as performing over 8,000 adult surgical operations per annum. The aim of our study was to evaluate patients undergoing elective gynaecological procedures at CWIUH whom required high dependency unit (HDU) post-operative care. From this data we aimed to identify measures to potentially reduce HDU admissions.
Methods: We carried out a retrospective audit of elective gynaecological procedures requiring post-operative HDU admission over a two year period (July 2017–July 2019). We assessed a wide variety of parameters including age, body mass index (BMI), American Society of Anaesthesiologists (ASA) classification, type of surgery, time of HDU admission, HDU length of stay and reasons for admission to HDU. A total number of elective gynaecological procedures carried out in this time period was then collected using theatre records.
Results: A total of 4,132 elective gynaecological procedures were carried out in a two year period. Of this 19 were admitted to HDU post-operatively (0.5%). Of those admitted directly to HDU from recovery, we found a large majority (93%) were admitted to the HDU within 2 hours of the recovery room closing. In addition we found that 80% of these patients were discharged from HDU the following day.
Conclusions: This data demonstrates a clear trend in HDU admissions of this cohort. We believe extending the opening hours of the recovery room will result in a reduction of HDU admissions of gynaecological post-operative patients at CWIUH.
