Outpatient Surgery

• Outpatient Surgery Introduction
• Outpatient Surgery Preparation
• At the Surgery Center
• Surgery
• After Surgery
• Going Home
• Special Cases: Children
• Problems
• For More Information
• Web Links
• Synonyms and Keywords
• References
• Authors and Editors
• Read more on Outpatient Surgery from Healthwise

Outpatient Surgery Introduction

Outpatient surgery allows a person to return home on the same day that a surgical procedure is performed. Outpatient surgery is also referred to as ambulatory surgery or same-day surgery.

• Outpatient surgery eliminates inpatient hospital admission, reduces the amount of medication prescribed, and uses a doctor's time more efficiently. More procedures are now being performed in a surgeon's office, termed office-based surgery, rather than in an operating room.
  
  
• Outpatient surgery is suited best for healthy people undergoing minor or intermediate procedures (limited urologic, ophthalmologic, or ear, nose, and throat procedures and procedures involving the extremities). Recently, people with more complex medical problems are undergoing outpatient surgery, and the types and complexity of surgical procedures have expanded significantly.
  
  
• More than 60% of elective surgery procedures in the United States are currently performed as outpatient surgeries. Health experts expect this percentage will increase to nearly 75% over the next decade.
  
  
• Outpatient surgery has developed over the past 3 decades for a number of reasons, including the following:
   
  • Improved surgical instruments
    
    
  • Less invasive surgical techniques
    
    
  • A team approach in preparing a person for surgery and home recovery that involves both a surgeon and an anesthesiologist (a medical doctor who specializes in administering anesthesia medications so the patient feels no pain and does not remember the surgery)
    
    
  • The desire to reduce health care costs