D. Whinney et al., APPROPRIATE USE OF THE DAY-CARE UNIT FOR RIGID ENDOSCOPY OF THE UPPERAERODIGESTIVE TRACT, Annals of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, 80(2), 1998, pp. 111-114
There is increasing pressure for more day surgery to be undertaken in
the health service. In this retrospective study of 325 rigid upper aer
odigestive tract endoscopies performed in the Day Care Unit of The Roy
al National Throat Nose and Ear Hospital, London, there were no post-d
ischarge complications and only four patients required admission, none
were, in our opinion, the direct result of day case rigid endoscopy.
In our unit, the day case rate for microlaryngeal surgery is 44.8%, sh
owing that rates significantly higher than published national rates of
17.1% (1993/1994) are achievable. We conclude that day case microlary
ngeal surgery and diagnostic rigid endoscopy of the upper aerodigestiv
e tract is safe if performed by suitably qualified staff in dedicated
specialist units with patients selected according to existing day case
criteria.