[Circulatory disturbances during anaesthesia. A computer-aided analysis of 150,000 anaesthetic records 1967-1977 of the Karolinska hospital (Stockholm) (author's transl)].
The computerized anaesthetic record-keeping system at the Karolinska hospital at present (1980) contains anaesthetic records from approximately 200,000 cases. In order to evaluate the importance of circulatory disturbances during routine anaesthetic work, all records from 1967-1977 were searched for notes concerning complications. 5,996 anaesthetics were thus retrieved, having a total of 7,296 complications. This corresponds to an overall frequency of slightly more than 4 p. cent. Circulatory disturbances amounted to approximately 10 p. cent of all complications. Arrhythmias were common. Serious troubles i. e. circulatory arrests were very rare and these cases were studied individually. Differences in the frequency of complications as correlated to the preanaesthetic status of the patient including the risk group and diagnosis could be demonstrated. It is concluded that circulatory complications during anaesthesia exhibit patterns that can be analyzed from data collected during routine anaesthetic work provided a computerized anaesthetic record-keeping system is used.