Ophthalmologic surgeries in the one‐day surgery unit. A descriptive study evaluating 13 years of activity

Abstract

Purpose A descriptive, retrospective study about the surgical activity at the One‐day surgery Unit (ODSU) of the Hospital Clínico Universitario Lozano Blesa, Zaragoza, Spain, during the years 1995 to 2007. Methods To review the surgical activity of the ODSU, the following variables were analyzed: sex, age, diagnosis, risk of anaesthesia and applied anaesthesia, surgical technique, intra‐ and postoperative complications, medication, morbidity, criteria of discharge from hospital, waiting list time as well as the grade of information given to the patient, comfort, sanitary attention, and grade of satisfaction. These data were obtained from a personal questionnaire and a phone call and were statistically analyzed by the StatView program. Results During the period of 1995 to 2007 13.585 surgical interventions were realized at the ODSU, among those 4.734 ophthalmologic surgeries (34, 8%). The average age of the patients was 56, 53 years. The 56 % were males. In the 22, 9% of the cases the employed anaesthesia was retrobulbar. The surgical techniques were: phacoemulsification and IOL 3550 (26, 1%), extracapsular cataract extraction 256 (1, 8%). In the 95% of the cases the patients were discharged from hospital, the remaining 5% is composed of non intervention, ocular hypertension, infection, retrobulbar haematoma and fever. The grade of general satisfaction was qualified as high (85%), with the acceptance to return to the ODSU in the 76% of the cases Conclusion The ODSU offers a safe, fast and comfortable alternative to classic hospitalisation.