W Wigmore | PubMed Health

PubMed1992

Ophthalmic day case surgery: the role of a dedicated day case unit.

A study was undertaken to examine all cases admitted to a new ophthalmic surgical day case unit during its first six months of operation. This paper describes the experience gained in establishing the unit, including operational management, and outlines the factors contributing to the unit's success. A quarter of the patients usually admitted as inpatients have been treated in the day unit, and day case surgery rarely results in unplanned inpatient admission, or subsequent readmission. Provided strict admission criteria are followed, the results show that this facility can accommodate a wide range of common ophthalmological procedures, and that general anaesthesia is compatible with day case management.

Ambulatory Surgical Procedures↗

PubMed1991

Daycase cataract surgery.

The increasing demand for cataract surgery, combined with limited resources, has created renewed interest in daycase admission. We have audited the results of all daycase and inpatient cataract surgery in a large unit over a six-month period to determine the factors influencing daycase admission and surgical outcome; 34% of cataract patients were admitted as daycases in the study period. Neither distance travelled by the patient nor age appear to influence daycase admission. However, the differing policies of the individual consultant surgeons resulted in a wide variation in the number of operations performed on a daycase basis by each firm. The rate of preoperative complications was unaffected by daycase admission, by the grade of surgeon operating, or by the type of anaesthetic employed. Only 2.1% of daycase admissions resulted in unplanned inpatient admission on the day of surgery, with another 2.1% being readmitted within six months of surgery. Late cancellation of surgery was much lower for daycases (0.4%) than for inpatients (5.1%).

Aged↗