Minor complications of general anesthesia in a series of 1220 patients: the influence of mode of ventilation.

Postoperative complications due to anesthetic technique were assessed in 1220 patients undergoing abdominal, neurosurgical, breast, head and neck operations or other surgical procedures. All patients were interviewed directly for vomiting, sore throat, headache, suxamethonium myalgias, ocular, vascular, nerve complications and awareness, 24 and 48 hours postoperatively. The incidence of vomiting was significantly higher in abdominal (27.2%) versus the extra-abdominal operations (16.2%), (p less than 0.005), overall incidence 17.6%. Spontaneous breathing was associated with lower incidence of vomiting (p less than 0.001), but a higher incidence of sore throat (p less than 0.001), headache (p less than 0.05) and suxamethonium muscle pains (p less than 0.001), versus controlled ventilation. The incidence of ocular complications was 4.7%, of local vascular complications 15.2%, of peripheral nerve problems 0.33% and of awareness 0.16%.