• Abhijan Maity, Debasish Saha, Sarbari Swaika, Sumanta Ghosh Maulik, Brojen Choudhury, and Manotosh Sutradhar.
• Department of Orthopaedics, Burdwan Medical College, Burdwan, West Bengal, India.
• Anesth Essays Res. 2012 Jan 1; 6 (1): 34-7.

AbstractThe aim of this study was to determine the incidence of early postoperative hypoxia after general anesthesia and to evaluate the need of oxygen supplementation. A total of 150 patients aged between 18-60 years belonging to ASA I or II were studied. Patients were alternately allocated to two groups of 75 each. Group-I (n=75) patients received 2 L of oxygen via nasopharyngeal catheter during transfer from operation theatre to recovery room and in the recovery room for a period of 4 h. Group-II (n=75) patients did not receive oxygen either during transfer or in the recovery room. Twenty percent in Group-II developed hypoxaemia during transfer from operation theatre to recovery room out of which 24% developed mild (SaO2 86-90%), 2.66% moderate (SaO2 85-81%), and 1.33% extreme (SaO2 <76%) hypoxaemia. None of the patients in Group - I, who received oxygen supplementation, developed hypoxaemia in the early postoperative period.

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