Same-day discharge protocol for laparoscopic treatment of adnexal disease: management and acceptance

Abstract

Objective Develop a ‘same-day discharge’ setting for laparoscopic treatment of adnexal disease. Setting Preventive Gynecology, European Institute of Oncology, Milan, Italy. Population Two hundred patients undergoing laparoscopic procedures. Material and methods Data were retrospectively collected through clinical, surgical and laboratory reports. After discharge patients were contacted by phone and e-mail. Main outcome measures The rate of discharge, adverse events and readmission was measured. The need for adjunctive care provided by our on-call service or by a primary care physician and the acceptability of the same-day discharge protocol were also investigated. Results One hundred and sixty-five patients out of 200 were discharged on the same day. Of the 35 patients hospitalized, the most frequent causes for overnight admission were: uncontrolled pain, surgical length or complexity of the procedure in nine patients, nausea/vomit in four patients. One hundred and one out of 200 patients answered the mailed questionnaire. None of the discharged patients were readmitted. Eighty-five percent of the answering patients evaluated the length of their hospital stay as adequate or moderately adequate. Ninety-two percent of the patients would recommend the day surgery to other patients. Conclusions our experience demonstrates that the same-day discharge protocol for laparoscopic treatment of adnexal disease is safe and acceptable.