Unexpected overnight admissions following day-case surgery: an analysis ofa dedicated ENT day care unit

Day-case surgery is an integral part of otolaryngology, and many procedures can be performed as day-cases provided strict criteria are applied in the selection of patients. We reviewed patients who required unexpected admissi on from the day-case unit at the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospit al, London between April 1997 and March 1998. The total number of patients undergoing surgery was 1642. Of the total, 29 (1.8%) had to be admitted une xpectedly for overnight stay: 24 of these patients had undergone nasal surg ery, representing 5.4% of all the nasal procedures performed - and the caus e of all these admissions was haemorrhage. Further analysis revealed 22 of these 24 nasal operations had included a septoplasty. The total number of s eptoplasties performed was 163; thus, septoplasty had an unexpected admissi on rate of 13.4%. This information has been used to formulate stricter guid elines for day-case septoplasty admissions in our unit.