Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Ambulatory surgery lowers hospitalisation costs, shortens the time to return to work but requires caution regarding socioenvironmental risk factors for complications and rehospitalisation. This was a single-centre prospective cross-sectional observational study conducted in a university hospital centrein January The primary objective was to assess the rate of conversion from ambulatory surgery to conventional hospitalisation or emergency department visit within 30 days following discharge from ambulatory unit.
Secondary objectives were to describe the socioenvironmental characteristics of outpatients and to identify risk factors for severe postoperative complications. The most represented surgical specialties were ophthalmology There were 22 3. Regarding socioenvironmental characteristics, outpatients Following ambulatory surgery, 9 outpatients 1. Severe complication rates were not significantly different according to socioenvironmental subgroups.
In our study, the prevalence of severe complications was low, conforming to the literature. The study was underpowered to estimate the effect of socioenvironmental variables. Keywords: adult anaesthesia, epidemiology, quality in health care, public health. The standardised collection of information by a single evaluator reinforces the reliability of our data. Ambulatory surgery currently accounts for the majority of surgical procedures in western countries. Safety in surgery and anaesthesia is traditionally measured by perioperative mortality and morbidity rates.
Ambulatory surgery lowers hospitalisation costs, shortens the time to return to work and may decrease the risk of some hospital-related complications such as hospital-acquired infections. However, ambulatory surgery also reduces the time available to monitor severe complications. Readmission in an ambulatory setting may indicate a severe complication that would have been managed earlier if the patient had been hospitalised in a conventional setting.
While surgical complication rates are mainly dependent on surgery and patient characteristics, the loss of chance due to ambulatory setting may be better assessed by the rate of readmission or emergency department visits. Another indicator is the rate of conversion from ambulatory surgery to conventional hospitalisation. Conversions are not associated with any loss of chance compared with scheduled conventional hospitalisation but may indicate organisational concerns such as the absence of an escort home after discharge.
