Risk Factors Related to Postoperative Dizziness Among Patients Who Underwent General Anesthesia and Intraoperative Analgesics: A Prospective Cohort Study

Purpose: To describe postoperative dizziness for patients who received analgesics during general anesthesia and to investigate the factors related to the trend of dizziness within 3 days after surgery.

Design: A prospective cohort study.

Methods: This is a longitudinal study. The severity of dizziness was assessed from the day of the surgery until the third day post surgery. Generalized estimation equation models were created to determine the predictive effect of each independent variable separately.

Findings: After surgery, the incidence of dizziness was 42.1%. Approximately 10% of participants experienced severe dizziness. Participants with postoperative nausea and vomiting were more likely to experience postoperative dizziness. In addition, age, education level, history of motion sickness, surgical specialties, laparoscopic surgery, and long-acting analgesic use had an impact on the trend of postoperative dizziness. More than 25% of participants who used long-acting analgesics experienced dizziness on the third postoperative day.

Conclusions: Postoperative dizziness was common among participants who received analgesics during general anesthesia. Monitoring for postoperative dizziness may need to be prolonged, especially in patients taking long-acting analgesics. For patients at high risk for postoperative dizziness, preventive measures such as adjusting analgesic and anesthetic medications may be necessary.