In our ambulatory surgery center we do minor to moderate surgeries on baseline healthy patients who go home 1 - 4 hours after surgery. They range in age from 1 to 90 years.
Anesthesia gives a quick baseline report when the patient is brought to recovery then off to the next case. The surgeon is off to their next case or back to their clinics.
Is there any rough guideline on IV fluids post surgery? Is there some xxx number of hours NPO, weight, age, guideline of IV fluid replacement in adults? We do have one for pediatric patients.
Some co-workers are very ?conservative? with IV fluids. "The patients has already gotten 1000 of LR, I'm just going to hang a 500 ml bag at tko." Some nurses hang 2 - 3 more 1000 LR IV"s saying, "the patient is healthy, no cardiac or renal issues, has been NPO, I will hang more fluid, it helps prevent nausea, helps rehydrate them."
I stress we all know common sense, the patients age, medical history, etc. is taken into account.
Only for a few types of surgeries is it required that a patient void prior to discharge.
