Incidence and characteristic analysis of in-hospital falls after anesthesia

In-hospital falls may result in serious clinical adverse consequences, but the effects of anesthesia in the occurrence of postoperative falls are still undetermined. Anesthesia may theoretically cause postoperative falls due to the residual pharmacologic and neuromuscular blocking effects of anesthetics. We retrospectively reviewed events of in-hospital falls occurred after anesthesia management to identify the incidence and risk factors of postanesthesia falls.

We reviewed the postanesthesia visit of patients received anesthesia in the Hualien Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital from January 2009 to December 2013. Falls happened within 24 h after anesthesia were recorded. The Poisson regression model was used for simultaneous analysis of the association between incidence proportion of postanesthesia falls and the potential risk factors.

A total of 60,796 inpatients received anesthesia management over the past 5 years, and ten patients fell within 24 h after anesthesia. All cases happened in the general wards. Falls occurred more often at the bedside, presence of caregivers, and during the daytime. Patients underwent regional anesthesia, and old age significantly increased the risk of postanesthesia falls, while differences in gender and ASA physical status did not affect the occurrence of postanesthesia falls.

The overall incidence proportion of postanesthesia falls is 1.6 cases per 10,000 patients (95 % CI 0.006 to 0.026 %) over a 24-h observation period. Falls are more commonly happened during the less expected periods after operation and are increased in the elderly and patients received regional anesthesia. This study highlights that more comprehensive clinical practice guidelines for postoperative care should be exercised to prevent the in-hospital falls.