Patient selection for day surgery

Day surgery is a planned pathway delivered by a multidisciplinary team and is perhaps better described as ‘same day surgery’. In 2000 the NHS set a target of performing 75% of operations as same day surgery but practice varies widely; an assessment of 10 procedures easily performed as same day surgery showed rates varying from 19% to 90% by procedure and the potential day case rate was not being reached for any procedure. There is a move to ‘treat day surgery as the norm’ in an effort to increase rates of day surgery so this article describes patient selection and procedures for day surgery, and discusses techniques which can be employed by anaesthetists and surgeons to achieve the reduced surgical trauma, rapid recovery and minimal complications necessary for successful day surgery.