Computerised 4-choice Reaction Time Test for the Measurement of Psychomotor Recovery After General Anaesthesia

The recovery of patients after general anaesthesia is usually estimated by using clinical signs and scores. Since there is a lack of the agreed objective methods for assessing cognitive and psychomotor recovery after general anaesthesia in ambulatory settings, the aim of this study was to evaluate three psychological tests for this purpose. Patients, who were scheduled for ambulatory gynaecological surgery, underwent 3 standard psychological tests before (T1), 15 minutes after the surgery (T2) and on discharge from the recovery room (T3). The tests used were Wechsler memory scale (test 1, working memory capacity), d2 - test (test 2, concentration endurance) and computer-based 4-choice-reaction time (4CRT, test 3, reaction time) as well as Postanesthesia Discharge Scoring System (PADSS). The same test battery was used in healthy female volunteers, all test results were compared at the different time points.