The Complete Recovery Room Book: Edition 5

Anthea Hatfield

Feb 2014 · OUP Oxford

About this ebook

The care that a patient receives in the first hours after surgery is crucial to minimizing the risk of complications such as heart attacks, pneumonia, and blood clots. As the patient awakes from their drug-induced coma, it takes time for them to metabolize and excrete these drugs, during which period they remain unable to care for themselves, and at increased risk of harm. The recovery room staff must manage both comatose and physiologically unstable patients, and deal with the immediate post-operative care of surgical patients. The fifth edition of this popular book provides nurses, surgeons and anaesthetists with clear guidance on how to manage day-to-day problems and how to make difficult decisions. Previous editions of this book have established it as the definitive guide to setting-up, equipping, staffing, and administering an acute care unit. It includes basic science such as physiology and pharmacology, specific symptoms including pain and vomiting, and has chapters devoted to the unique post-operative needs of individual types of surgery. This new edition brings this important text up to date and new drugs and techniques for monitoring are described. A new section looks ahead to the future development and design of recovery rooms and how they can contribute to patient well being.

About the author

Dr Hatfield is an anaesthetist with an interest in operating theatre safety and the outcomes for patients at their most vulnerable time, directly after they have been anaesthetised and are in the recovery room. She is works at Wairarapa Hospital in Masterton, New Zealand.