Patient selection for day case surgery

摘要

Day surgery provides many benefits to patients and trusts. Currently, almost all surgery should be performed as day case or very short stay and as such the criteria for suitability for day case surgery have been much expanded over recent decades. Social and medical criteria should rarely prevent successful day case surgery; we present suggestions whereby historic barriers to discharge can be overcome. We discuss the suitability of surgical procedures to be performed as a day case and explain how emergency pathways can be utilised to enable an additional cohort of patients be treated as a day case. These suggestions will permit the vast majority of patients to reap the benefits of undergoing their procedure as a day case.