[Intraoperative arterial hypotension recorded by an anaesthesia information management system]

In order to evaluate the benefits arising from regular recording of intraoperative adverse events, we extracted from our database all episodes of intraoperative hypotension and studied the risk factors of this event.

Retrospective analysis of a large database from two university teaching hospitals evaluating the incidence and the risk factors of intraoperative hypotension by logistic regression.

A data collection chart describing the patient's characteristics, the anaesthetic technique and selected intraoperative incidents was filled for each anaesthetised patient in the operating room and then recorded in the computer database. Data collected in 2001 in patients undergoing general anaesthesia for orthopaedic and general surgery were reviewed and univariate and multivariate analysis were performed using Statview 5.0 and Stata 7.0.

Among 11 820 patients who underwent anaesthesia, 2691 were selected. The incidence of intraoperative arterial hypotension was 16.8%. The associated factors were duration of surgery, age and ASA status of the patients. The use of etomidate for induction was not associated with a decreased risk of intraoperative hypotension.

Systematic recording of intraoperative events in a database has been suggested as useful by many experts for quality-assurance and safety analysis purposes. Analysis of a frequent anaesthesia-related (i.e. hypotension) event did not disclose any relevant factor that might lead to improvement. Running such databases is time-consuming and may be expensive. This leads us to question the efficiency of such databases.