Post anesthesia care unit

The article is about the medical facility. For the fish, see Pacu (fish).

A post anesthesia care unit, often abbreviated PACU, is a vital part of hospitals, ambulatory carecenters, and other medical facilities. It is an area designed to provide care for patients recovering from anesthesia, whether it be general anaesthesia, regional anaesthesia, or local anesthesia. The PACU staff, generally comprised of highly trained nurses, monitor vital signsand treat patients in whatever manner is required. A commonly treated symptom in the PACU is postoperative nausea. Occasionally, serious life threating complications, such as laryngospasm, can arise post-anesthesia. Unless complications occur, most patients will only stay in the PACU for a few hours, before returning home or to another department of the hospital.

External link

• Ketamine: Emergency Applications(eMedicine.com) - discusses laryngospasm.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post+anesthesia+care+unit Wikipedia article Post anesthesia care unit.