Postoperative Respiratory Depression

This course discusses postoperative respiratory depression and explains the critical needs for monitoring respiratory activity in postoperative patients. Included are profiles of patients at high risk for respiratory depression: patients taking opioids, morbidly obese patients, and patients with obstructive sleep apnea.

In addition, the course describes the value of implementing evidence-based practice strategies such as continuous noninvasive monitoring for detecting postoperative pulmonary complications.

The Nellcor™ Bedside Respiratory Patient Monitoring System enables solutions in providing continuous, noninvasive respiration rate monitoring. A brief review of the Nellcor™ system is provided.