The Impact of Routine Post-Anesthesia Care Unit Extubation for Pediatric Surgical Patients on Safety and Operating Room Efficiency

Study of 1,747 pediatric surgical cases demonstrates that routine extubation in the PACU by nurses is safe and improves OR efficiency, reducing room turnover time by 6-9 minutes compared to OR extubation. Only 1.5% of cases required brief bag-mask ventilation with no re-intubations, suggesting PACU extubation may reduce premature tube removal risks while decreasing hospital costs.