[The Anaesthesiological Questionnaire for patients in cardiac anaesthesia. Results of a multicenter survey by the scientific working group for cardiac anaesthesia of the German Society for Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine].
OBJECTIVE
The Anaesthesiological Questionnaire (ANP) is a self-rating method for the assessment of postoperative complaints and patient satisfaction. The questionnaire was adapted for use in cardiac anaesthesia (ANP-KA). The study was conducted to show the value of ANP-KA as a practicable means of assessing the patient's state after cardiac anaesthesia and for its use in quality assurance.


METHODS
A total of 1,688 patients from 19 clinics were included who had exclusively received heart valve surgery, CABG surgery or both operations. They completed the ANP-KA between days 1 and 8 postoperatively.


RESULTS
The ANP-KA was completed by 79.1% of the patients without any assistance. The highest incidence rates were reported for a dry mouth/thirst (85.1%) and for pain in the area of surgery (60.2%). Plausible and significant differences in patients' symptoms between the grading for the immediate postoperative period and the current state at filling in the questionnaire were found. Women reported more postoperative complaints than men but no differences were found between male and female patients with regard to satisfaction with anaesthesiological care and convalescence. More complaints were reported after heart valve surgery than after CABG and satisfaction with convalescence was significantly lower after heart valve surgery. The clinics differed with respect to the reported somatic complaints and satisfaction scales.


CONCLUSIONS
The results demonstrate the practicability and validity of the ANP-KA for the assessment of postoperative complaints and patient satisfaction after cardiac surgery.
Hüppe
M
M
Klinik für Anästhesiologie, Universität zu Lübeck. hueppe@mail.uni-luebeck.de
Zöllner
M
M
Alms
A
A
Bremerich
D
D
Dietrich
W
W
Lüth
J-U
JU
Michels
P
P
Schirmer
U
U
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000758:Anesthesia / Q000009:adverse effects; D000776:Anesthesiology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006348:Cardiac Surgical Procedures / Q000009:adverse effects; D002315:Cardiopulmonary Bypass; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D019918:Heart Valve Prosthesis Implantation; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000453:epidemiology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires