The present study was undertaken after it was observed that patients submitted to surgical procedures arrived in recovery room with incomplete records, thus complicating continuing nursing care. The goal of the present study is to analyze bibliographic data from 1990 to 2002 on recovery room nursing care. The data was obtained from LILACS (Latin America Literature about Health Science), PERIENF (Nursing School Library of the University of São Paulo) and BDENF (Library of Federal University of Minas Gerais). The key words were nursing care, recovery room and immediate post-operative period. Only 16 articles were found, indicating a shortage of literature on this topic. The recovery room period is an important period of hospitalization and the data are essential for continuous care.
Nursing care; Anesthesia recovery period; Immediate postoperative period