WOULD DAY-CASE ADULT TONSILLECTOMY BE SAFE

Day-case surgery is increasing to improve health care efficiency. Adul t tonsillectomy is performed on an inpatient basis in the UK because o f safety concerns regarding primary haemorrhage. This study aims to in vestigate the likely safety of day-case tonsillectomy in adults, by de fining the incidence and timing of primary haemorrhage and therefore t o establish a safe time period for same-day discharge. Prospectively r ecorded data on 2157 adult tonsillectomies over a five-year period wer e reviewed. Serious primary haemorrhage was uncommon (0.8 per cent). T he 95 per cent reference range of time to primary haemorrhage was with in 0 to 6.8 hours of surgery and the 95 per cent confidence interval ( C.I.) of its upper limit was 5.2 to 8.4 hours. The results compare fav ourably with the UK inpatient and US adult day-case literature. We con clude that day-case tonsillectomy would probably be safe in adults if the patients are discharged after 8.4 hours.