The recovery room is designed for the monitoring and care of patients during the period immediately following anesthesia and surgery. The recovery room must be near the operating room, so that the physician is available for consultation and assistance. The size of the recovery room depends on the number and kind of operations performed, with approximately 1~5 beds for each operating room.

Recovery from anesthesia begins in the operating room with the discontinuation of anesthetic drugs and extubation of the trachea. Volatile anesthetics are eliminated by the lungs and intravenous anesthetics by metabolism or renal excretion. Residual activity of muscle relaxants should be assessed with a peripheral nerve stimulator, and any residual blockade should be treated with antagonists.

The most common immediate postoperative complications are upper airway obstruction. arterial hypoxemia, alveolar hypoventilation, hypotension, hypertension, cardiac dysrhythmias, and agitation (delirium tremens).

The physician must make sure that the patient is breathing adequately before initiating the transter from the recovery room to the ward, where monitoring is much less intense.

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