A description of the fluid status of ambulatory surgery patients

Abstract

Early recognition and treatment of fluid imbalance are essential in the prevention and treatment of complications and traditional methods for assessing fluid balance in the surgical population may be inappropriate for use in the outpatient setting. The purpose of this exploratory descriptive study was to describe the fluid status of ambulatory surgery patients using and hourly fluid balance formula. A retrospective charte review was conducted on 45 patients having elective, outpatient surgery under general anesthesia. The data were collected related to age, weight, gender, surgical group, fluid administration, prescriptive and nonprescriptive medications, heart rate, and systolic and diastolic arterial blood pressures. Descriptive statistics and tests of difference were used to analyze the data. The sample was equally distributed between three surgical groups. Eighteen subjects were in the clinical phase of early dehydration upon admission to the operating room. Forty-two subjects were in the state of fluid balance at the time of discharge. The estimated fluid requirement formula was found to be a clinically useful tool.