Does outpatient surgery reduce 30-day morbidity and mortality compared to inpatient surgery in patients undergoing elective operations?
Outpatient elective operations are a safe option with lower 30-day morbidity and mortality compared to inpatient surgery, likely reflecting careful patient selection.
In this large multi-specialty analysis, we found that patients undergoing outpatient surgery had lower risk of 30-day morbidity and mortality than those undergoing the same inpatient operation. Patients having outpatient surgery were generally healthier, suggesting careful patient selection occurred even with increasing outpatient operation frequency. Patients and providers can feel reassured that outpatient operations are a safe, reasonable option for selected patients.
Madsen et al. (Tue,) studied this question.