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Morning, Noon or Night Surgeries

Morning surgeries

Surgical patients may have fewer problems with anesthesia if the operation is scheduled early in the morning.

Problems arising from anesthesia are rare, but Duke University Medical Center researchers have concluded that troubles increase significantly in operations that begin late in the afternoon. The study appears in the August Quality and Safety in Health Care.

Researchers analyzed more than 90,000 operations in a dataabase that included information on errors, pain-management problems, delays and postoperative nausea and vomiting.

The probability of certain types of problems was more than four times as great for operations beginning at 4 p.m. as for those beginning at 9 a.m.

The scientists were unsure why this was so, but they offered several possible explanations, including fatigue or sleepiness in doctors and staff members. Shift changes or increased caseloads later in the day may have been a factor.

Melanie C. Wright, an assistant professor in anesthesiology at Duke, emphasized that most of the problems were minor – pain management or postoperative nausea – and that the incidence was low any time of day. Still, she said, “If I had a choice, I would opt for surgery early in the morning.”

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