Purpose Ambulatory office-based anesthesia (OBA) is a relatively new but rapidly growing field. OBA requires a different approach than that used in the hospital, because there are unique considerations that must be recognized when administering anesthesia in a free-standing office facility. This review provides a summary of the important issues and aspects of safe patient care. Methods The Medline, Embase, Biological Abstract, Science Citation Index, and Healthstar databases were searched under