SEPTOPLASTY AS A DAY-CASE PROCEDURE - A 2 CENTER STUDY

Day-stay surgery is an integral part of Otolaryngology. Many procedure s which have traditionally been thought to require overnight stay can be carried out on a day care basis. We report our experience of treati ng 163 patients admitted for septal surgery as a day-case procedure. T he paper summarizes the experience of two centres. One of these is a L ondon Teaching Hospital, where surgery was performed through a dedicat ed day-case unit, and the other is a District General Hospital where p atients were admitted to a day-case unit but had their surgery on a ro utine in-patient list. As the result of this study we conclude that da y-stay septoplasty is associated with a low complication rate and is a safe and acceptable procedure provided that strict selection criteria are followed. The cost implications are discussed.